Fonic Ascendance
by RKamelot
Summary: What had started as a defiance to get away from home soon sweeps this fourth fonist into a dangerous mission she hadn't expected. But soon things get unveiled and it turns out there's more going on than everyone, even Jade, had expected.
1. Chapter 1

To say he was annoyed was an understatement. After the slight botching of the unauthorized mission, he now had to find that group of idiots and take back the fon disc before they could get too much information. Not that he even knew what was on that stupid disc - that was Dist's task, not his. But since it was partially his fault for losing the disc, he now had to get it back for the incompetent scientist.

Sync scowled at the mass of people that kept cutting in front of him as he stalked through one of the many bazaars of Chesedonia. It really seemed like they were all doing it on purpose, which only aggravated him more.

A sudden flash of red had him looking over to see if he'd run into the group he was searching for, but the red wasn't the shade of Fabre's hair. It was more golden than crimson and instead of belonging to a person it belonged to a pet. Sync frowned, wondering if he was seeing things, but the moment the creature ran for him, he knew it wasn't an illusion.

Resisting the urge to defend himself, Sync remained where he was, not wanting to get into trouble with the owner if it wasn't the pet he thought it was. The creature was a little smaller than one of Arietta's ligers and was proportioned differently, with more powerful front legs and slimmer hind legs. Right as the creature barreled into him, Sync felt the fluff of its golden, shaggy mane engulf him and a slightly harder surface that was probably the armor that traveled along the canine creature's front legs and back.

The pet was suddenly pulled back, much to Sync's relief. He wasn't sure how much more he could take of the animal's playful mauling. As the pet turned, he saw the scars covering its right eye, and its torn ear that was quite a bit shorter than its longer left ear.

"Damn it, Nyla, I don't know who you're mauling but I seriously hope it's a friend!"

At the sound of that voice Sync was partially thankful he didn't try to attack the pet - not just because it might've belonged to a noble, since nobles tended to raise Arkas when they plan on traveling outside cities a lot, but because it belonged to the familiar girl. Still, he wasn't happy about being mauled by any Arka, no matter who the owner was. So he turned his glare on the owner of the voice.

"You need to keep a hold of that pet of yours," his tone was cold, colder than he'd meant but the moment his eyes caught something on the girl he'd lost his nicer tone.

Shorter than him, she still had an air of maturity if you could look past how young she looked. Her silvery blonde hair was piled into a messy bun on her head, longer than Legretta's. Unkempt bangs framed her silver eyes, that widened in surprise once they landed on Sync.

Her outfit was a bizarre hodgepodge of blues, reds, blacks and browns. He vaguely recalled seeing that shirt on the Emperor of Malkuth once, but he couldn't be sure. He doubted that the Emperor's shirt was as cut up as the one hanging from this girl's slim form. Both of her gloves were differently sized, the one on her right hand going further up her arm than the left one does. It appeared the only things that matched were her brown, combat ready boots.

On her waist was multitude of belts that he knew once belonged to her brother, another from the Emperor, though the third eluded him. Covering them, was one of Asch's tabards? Where had she gotten one of those?

But most interesting, and frustrating for the green-haired General, were two of his arm bands covering her right arm.

The ones he thought he'd lost.

"Where did you get my arm bands and Asch's tabard?"

At least she had the decency to flinch. "I stole yours from your room and Asch's during training. He'd stripped down and left it right there so I took it. Got a problem with it?"

If he kept this conversation up for too long, it wouldn't likely go anywhere. He doubted she would just give them back, he already had new ones, anyway. "What are you doing in Chesedonia, then? Didn't your brother tell you not to come here after the last time."

She scoffed, the sound somehow sounding like one of Sync's and he had to wonder how often he did that around her if she was beginning to copy him. "You really think I listen? If I listened to my brother, we never would've met, and I wouldn't get all these wonderful chances to pester you and steal your clothes."

"Listen-"

"That's the funny thing Sync, we're friends, but that doesn't mean I have to listen to you, c'mon Nyla!"

Wait a second, friends? When did he ever agree to that? Sync was stunned for a second, so by the time he realized what she'd planned the girl was already halfway up the row of stalls and away from him. "Va-" he cut off as someone bumped into him, making him lose sight of the small female. "Damn all these stupid people…"

_"If I had wanted to hurt you, I would've left you to that monster," Sync grumbled, his eyes on the trembling female huddled against the tree. She'd been knocked into it minutes earlier by the monster he'd just slain, and yet it appeared as if she was clutching the tree like a lifeline._

_Normally he wouldn't have bothered saving someone from any sort of danger, but if it was revealed that he'd been close by Daath in an area where a traveler had been killed and hadn't helped… Yeah, no, he didn't want to get involved in any of that._

_He stepped closer to the small girl, though when she screamed he backed away on reflex, wondering how his luck could've gotten so rotten to get stuck with a preteen in shock. "All I wanted to do was leave the city and train, get away from that idiot of a scientist and the moody Fabre brat, and here I am stuck with a sniveling girl…"_

_The girl perked up, eyes widening, "A-Asch?"_

_Over near the carcass of the monster he'd just slain, the body of the girl's pet shifted. So that thing's alive? It padded over on unsteady paws and nudged the girl before looking at him. Sync frowned, then decided to take that as a sign to come closer. She tensed up again but didn't scream, so he took that as a sign to pick her up, her arm and leg too injured from the monster to be of any use._

_"Please take me to Asch…"_

Sync shook his head, finding it funny that the massive amount of people, the Arka, and seeing the shocked look on her face made him remember when he'd first met her. He'd taken her back to Daath, through the crowds of people who wanted to have their blessed Score read to them, and to the cathedral, taking her to the then God General in training. He'd taken her off Sync's hands, though he had noted that she had been tense with him as well. The time he saw her after that was when she'd found him outside the city once again, training. He'd taunted her about being out of the city without protection and how the next time she was in danger he wouldn't save her, but she'd responded with the same tone, flippant and sarcastic, like she'd been a different person, so long as she'd been a distance away from him.

Seeing her again after a long time was clearly messing with him, he had a mission to complete after all. That group of idiots was here somewhere and he needed that disc before Dist decided to come complain to him about it once again, and Sync really didn't need that at the moment.

**...**

"By the way, Colonel, why did you just stand by and watch as she did that?"

Jade smiled, "Oh no, you got me. It looked like it would be so amusing..."

And it was, Luke had been walking around the bazaar without watching what was going on around him, and he'd been taken advantage of. It amused Jade, since he'd chased the group of thieves across the Rotelro bridge right before he'd met the spoiled Fabre heir standing in front of him. The journey from then to now had been riddled with amusement for the Colonel, especially since his normal agenda was mostly filled with paperwork and training recruits.

Maybe Peony was right, and he needed to get out a bit more if wandering around Auldrant with a group of kids was filling him with amusement. Although if someone tried to get him to say that aloud he'd deny it the second it was spoken.

Since this wasn't his first time in Chesedonia, Jade knew exactly where they were heading, though Guy seemed to be taking it slow so Luke could look at everything around them. It mattered little to him though; it allowed him to think more of some of the events of Coral Castle. The fomicry machine alone was a bit worrisome, but seeing Asch the Bloody had Jade wondering just what Dist has been involved with all these years in the Oracle Knights. Granted, he wasn't sure if it was Dist who was completely involved, considering he had, according to Luke, been very interested in the findings at Coral Castle, but it was something Jade wanted to look into.

It took them longer than he would've thought, but eventually they arrived at the Kimlascan Consulate and their group was ushered in to see the Consul.

"Luke Fabre and the emissaries, I presume?" Greeted the Consul.

"What's the status of the ship to Baticul?" Jade wasted no time in asking. After all, the sooner they got to Baticul, the sooner he'd feel better about a couple of things. And less of a chance they'd be stopped by another God-General.

"Preparations are currently underway. Why not partake in some sightseeing around town while you wait?"

Guy took this moment to speak up. "Why don't we take this opportunity to investigate that fon disk?"

"If you need a fon disk analysis machine, I believe Mr. Astor of the Chesedonia Merchants' Guild has one."

"Luke, let's stop by there for a minute. Tear'll probably be busy after we get back to Baticul and all."

Although he'd prefer not to wander too much, Jade did agree that it would likely be a good opportunity to see what's on the disc. "I agree, after all, I do wonder what's on it."

Luke seemed to think about it, "Hmm. Well, okay. I want to take a look around, anyway."

Allowing the others to lead the way out of the Consulate, Jade once again fell into his thoughts. Halfway to the mansion though, he noticed something that had him leaving his thoughts and pausing long enough that the rest of the group noticed.

"What is it, Colonel?"

Leave it to Anise to question him. "I just thought we could split for a moment and meet up again in front of Astor's mansion. Luke did want to look around after all, and I just recalled something I wanted to try and find while we're here."

Luckily they didn't question him too much and Luke took that to mean it was okay to drag Guy off to look around more while Tear went off with Anise and Ion, leaving him to go and check something he hoped was wrong.

Three stalls down, Jade noticed there was a wide berth around an area that was usually teeming with people around this time of day. As he got closer, he noticed why and had to hold in a deep sigh that threatened to break out. After all, he'd hoped he was wrong when he'd seen it minutes earlier, but apparently no one was smiling on him that day.

A blonde girl was standing at the stall of a weapons dealer, waiving her arms around in a manner that clearly stated she wasn't happy with the way the bargaining was going. At her feet was the reason of such a wide berth, an Arka lay curled up with its head on its paws, the twin tails that signified it being such a creature, swishing from side to side near its forepaws. Jade noticed that the armor on this particular Arka had been altered and had a Malkuth cloak sewn into it, one that Jade realized was one of his own. Where had she gotten that, he wondered?

As he drew nearer, the Arka lifted its head and growled, the growl causing the girl to look over at the pet then up at Jade. The instant her silver eyes locked on him, she froze then looked from side to side as if trying to plan an escape route.

"Don't even think about it."

She cringed back as he came to stand beside her and looked down at the Arka by her feet. "Couldn't have warned me sooner?"

Jade sighed. "Don't blame Nyla for allowing me to see you, since you're the one bringing such a creature to Chesedonia where they stand out like a sore thumb."

Her eyes shifted to a glare as she eyed the creature at her feet. "Maybe I should leave you home, since you're the one who keeps getting me caught; this is the third person today alone that has caught up with me because of you. And we've just arrived from home!"

At least he managed to catch her before she got into trouble, then, though that might not necessarily be true since the last incident here in Chesedonia regarding her had actually been caused not even an hour into her arrival here. Still, "why are you here? I believe your brother told you not to come back here, especially not without an escort."

This caused her to turn her scowl at him. "What is it with everyone telling me what my brother has or hasn't told me? I get it, I 'shouldn't leave home without permission like a good little girl'. But seriously, there is nothing to do at home, and I already checked the shops there the other day and they had nothing new. Is it so bad to want to get something newer?"

Her sarcasm was in top form today it seemed, though that meant little to him at this point. Jade thought about it, if he left her alone here, she would likely get into some form of trouble and he'd have to go and get her out of it. It's happened before, in other towns, when he'd had to go out of his way to get her away from a few situations that she hadn't been able to handle, and he didn't want a repeat of any of them. He'd rather not have a screaming and crying girl on his hands for long periods of time, or have to receive letters regaling the tales of her crying and screaming from one of the others who would have to remain with her to calm her down.

Silver eyes were now eyeing Jade with suspicion. "You're planning on taking me to the Consulate, aren't you? Well guess what, I already checked there and it won't work, not if you plan on leaving me there to continue on whatever secret mission Peony asked you to do for him. I'll just leave the Consulate since none of them would be able to stop me."

Ah, so that explained why she hadn't been taken in yet. Any time a new soldier was stationed at the Consulate, they were warned about her and told to either keep an eye out for her or grab her if she seemed to be in trouble. It was likely that the former now applied to pretty much all of the soldiers there at the moment, which means he'd have to improvise.

"Not at all, I was wondering if perhaps you'd help me with something. Apparently Dist has gotten into something of a bind, and I wound up with an item of his that needs to be translated. Since you know a lot about his workings, I figured that you would be able to help us with the disc."

"Which means, you plan on having me come with you, regardless of what I want. Fine, I'll help you with the disc. But only if you buy me lunch on the way to wherever we're going, I haven't eaten since this morning."

Jade had expected much more resistance from her at this point, but perhaps she thought he would take her along regardless of what she wanted. Not that he'd have much of a chance if both of them turned on him, since his Fon slot seal hadn't been lessened at all since the Tartarus. Though it was unlikely that she knew about that incident, which was probably the cause for her quick willingness to agree to come with him.

Without another word, she climbed on Nyla and the two headed off in the opposite direction that he needed to go in. But finding it better to just follow along, Jade began to keep pace alongside them as they began their trek through the bazaar. After about ten minutes, the trio wound up at a fruit stand and Jade bought a bundle of fruit, which was then placed in the pack that was strapped on the left side of Nyla's armor.

"This'll work; lead the way to wherever it is we're going," came the reply muffled by an apple.

Resisting the urge to sigh, Jade indeed led the way to Astor's mansion. At the entrance of the mansion, the rest of the group had already arrived. Anise was playing with Mieu, Guy was talking with Ion, and Luke was apparently being scolded by Tear for something. As Jade came upon them with his new companions, everyone turned to stare.

"Whoa, that's an Arka! They're really rare nowadays and really expensive to breed!" Anise cried out, rushing over to them; apparently not seeing the girl on top the Arka's back until she jumped off Nyla's back and stood in front of the pet to keep it from attacking Anise.

"And also really temperamental when being suddenly bombarded by little girls."

Anise stopped short from running into the blonde, gasping at her sudden appearance. "Whoa! Where did you come from?"

Jade chose that moment to speak up before either of the two girls decided to start an argument. "Well, now that everyone's here, why don't we go in and see Astor?"

"Um, Colonel?"

"Yes, Tear?"

"Who is this girl?"

Jade sighed, he knew he couldn't very well just bring her along without the group questioning the decision, but he didn't really feel like explaining anything at the moment. Luckily, someone else realized that.

"Oh, so he didn't tell you he saw me. That's just great. Mr. Doesn't-Like-To-Explain-Things over here apparently saw Nyla, which obviously means I'm here, and went to find me. Evidently, he has it in his head that I can't take care of myself and has coerced me into 'helping' you guys out with something that might or might not be from Dist—"

"It is."

"—because he wants to keep me close until he can hand me off to the right group of soldiers to take back to the capital," she finished despite Jade's input.

Everyone turned to stare at him now, looks ranging from shock, disbelief, and anger. It would amuse him more if the looks weren't directed at him, though it still did entertain him just a tad. He was mostly amused by the tone that she had used, since he remembered her always being quiet when he'd first found her, never wanting to make much of a sound while in a new environment. Though there had been a reason for that, and Jade was thankful that he had a chance to change that, not that he outwardly showed it. Even Peony had been surprised by her appearance and tone back when— No, he wouldn't allow himself to continue that train of thought at the moment, there were other things that needed to be handled. He couldn't allow himself to get that caught up in his memories.

"Like she mentioned, I'll be keeping her along until I get the chance to hand her off to another higher official who will make sure she doesn't get into trouble."

Tear sighed, clearly not thrilled by the newest addition, but walked over with a hand extended, "In that case, I'm Tear."

"Oh, err, yeah. Hi, I'm Valeria. This is my pal Nyla, pleased to meet ya," she got out, shaking Tear's hand.

Anise came over next and offered her hand as well, "Anise Tatlin, Fon Master Guardian."

Jade noticed with interest that Valeria stiffened the moment Anise mentioned her title and looked over right as Ion was walking toward the group of girls, though as the Fon Master drew closer, he stopped with shocked look on his face. "Oh! I remember you; you used to spend time around the Cathedral in Daath while waiting for Dist and some of your other friends."

He also watched with interest as Valeria inhaled a breath and held it for a moment before releasing it and exchanging her shocked look for a quick grin. If he hadn't been watching her, he would've missed it, it had happened so fast.

"Right, I recall seeing you around, good to see you again, Fon Master," Valeria greeted offhandedly, looking away the moment the greeting was finished. She then walked to Nyla's side and got atop the pet while turning to look at the men of the group. "No need to be all formal, I don't need handshakes or anything, just your names so I don't call you something else."

Luke looked annoyed at the thought of a new person, "Luke. Luke fon Fabre."

Guy on the other hand looked relieved. "And I'm Guy Cecil, a servant at Luke's manor."

"And I'm Mieu!" the cheagle cried as he bounced up and down next to Luke. Valeria cringed away from the cheagle, clearly not liking his high pitched voice. Even Nyla growled low, snorting at the little creature, which then caused his ears to droop sadly. It amused Jade, since Mieu likely knew what the Arka had grumbled to him.

"Okay, got it. Tear, Guard, Ion, Fabre, Guy and Pipsqueak. Also Jerk. Good to know. Can we get this over with now?"

Jade wasn't too worried about the nicknames, since she likely only said them to get on the nerves of the ones she'd nicknamed. If he recalled, she'd done this before while with him on a training exercise, it was mostly to see who she might be able to annoy the most and the fact that she managed to single out the ones who would most likely get annoyed or saddened the quickest didn't surprise him.

He brushed it aside for now, since they had other things to do. Anise's cry about being called 'Guard' had him chuckling under his breath.

* * *

**A/N:**

**RK: Thank you for reading our fic! This is the first fic that we're writing together and hopefully we'll be doing a good job! **

**We also really need to thank our Beta: IHaveNoIdea8 who has stuck with us through a TON of messaging, giving us tips and ideas on how to make something better or change it. Also she fixed grammar and run on sentences, cause she's amazing like that!**

**Um? Anything else?**

**Mara: Neither myself nor RK own the rights for Tales of the Abyss, we only own the two copies of the PS2 version and a copy of the 3DS version in our possession. Only our OCs are ours and any side plot we may or may not throw in later on in the story.**

**We also wish to give a warning that there will be a few darker elements within our fic, but we plan on giving warnings if they get to be a bit intense.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: **

**RK: Look chapter 2 already!**

**Mara: RK... We already wrote this and sent it to our Beta awhile ago, we'd planned on having at least two chapters written before publishing anyway, remember?**

**RK: Oh, right. Anyway! Once again we want to say thanks to our Beta IHaveNoIdea8! Seriously, she's awesome.**

**Mara: And neither I nor RK own the rights to Tales of the Abyss, all we own is our characters.**

**Also, there is a touch of abuse in this chapter, if you're not wanting to read anything like that, we suggest you skip the paragraphs that are in italics.**

**RK: Enjoy and please review, we really love hearing what other people say. And thanks to shoptopgamergirl for being the first to review! We hope you keep enjoying our fic!  
**

* * *

She was brooding. She knew it, Jade knew it.

Hell, the other people probably knew it.

After the group got over the shock of having a new party member, they walked the rest of the short way to Astor's mansion. Valeria knew that Astor likely didn't care about having a large pet walking around, but she'd hoped the guards of the mansion would tell them that Nyla couldn't come in so she could have used the excuse to stay with Nyla in order to get away.

But they didn't, so now she was lying on the Arka in the parlor that Astor's butler (or whatever he wanted to be called, as referring to him as such had apparently hurt his feelings), led them too. Astor was finishing up some sort of business while the rest of the group was studiously looking away from Valeria as they waited, as though she wouldn't notice that they were curious about her.

Valeria had to admit, in their shoes, she would feel the same when it came to Jade. He walks off with a likely lame excuse, and when he comes back he has a short female with an attitude coupled with a rare-ish pet breed and no explanation. She would be curious, too. That didn't mean she'd offer any explanations though - that was all on Jade.

And since Jade was who he was, Valeria doubted the group would get any explanation about her unless something dire came up and both her and Jade had to reveal something. Wouldn't that just be the best?

A door opening to her left had Valeria looking over as Astor finally swept into the room, his 'butler' at his side. Everyone else rose from where they'd been sitting, but Valeria had dealt with Astor before and found it tedious to be as formal as some of the others. So she stayed buried in Nyla's fur until she was needed.

"Oh my. Fon Master Ion! If only you'd let me know you were coming, I'd have prepared a grand welcome for you..."

Ion shook his head, "It's fine, we're trying to keep a low profile. Also, I have a favor to ask you."

"Name it. The Chesedonia Merchants' Guild is always at your service, Fon Master."

Guy walked over to Astor, presenting the disc that made reason for Valeria's involvement with the group. "We want to read the data from this fon disk."

Astor looked at the disc for a moment, as if debating on something, then clapped his hands, the "butler" who had walked to the side of the room to wait until he was needed, walked over to Guy and accepted the disc. Valeria chose that moment to stand and walk over, making sure to keep a small distance between her and the two men, she'd heard from one of the others as they'd waited that Guy was afraid of women.

"I suppose I'll be going along with you then, I need to double check something on the disc anyway," she explained to the guy. If Astor was shocked to see Valeria again, he didn't show it. He remained calm as he nodded to the butler. Almost reluctantly, he led her away and further into the mansion after she motioned for Nyla to remain where she was.

"I hope for your sake you don't cause any trouble, the damage last time was extensive…"

Valeria blinked, then stared hard at him, trying and get a good look. Clarity came to her and she kept from hitting herself in the face as she kept up with the guy, who was clearly trying to lose her in his haste to get to the disc reader. "Riiight, you were involved in the incident with that monster that followed Nyla and me into the city from the desert. Which, by the way, wasn't our fault. The monster got past the city's sentries, we were just trying to get back alive. We didn't think the damned thing would be that persistent and come to the bazaar we ran into."

She wouldn't mention that it wasn't even the last time she'd been there, especially if that particular incident hadn't reached Astor's ears yet. That trip to the desert had been the worst mistake of her life. Well, that she remembered anyway.

What had she been thinking? She was seriously at a disadvantage in the desert, and Nyla had been worn out at the time as well. The poor decision on her part had led to the disaster of a monster following them into the city and into one of the lower bazaars nearest to the desert.

It hadn't been pretty, to say the least. Though thankfully, as far as Valeria knew, no one died. So it was a win-win in her eyes: she'd survived another day, and no one else had died because of it. Sure, a couple of merchants lost merchandise, but that was their own fault for being so close to the desert, where they knew monsters were.

Shaking the thought from her head, Valeria followed the man into the room with the fonic disc scanner and moved to the monitor before he had a chance to get there. She held her hand out to him for the disc, which he begrudgingly handed over, and inserted it into the machine. The screen lit up, and one of Dist's annoying little riddles appeared almost instantly.

Valeria snorted. She thought Jade wasn't telling the truth about it, and that she would be able to get away faster without him noticing, but now she actually had to make an effort.

"What is that?"

Resisting the urge to jump away from the man looking over her shoulder, Valeria pointed at one of the words on the screen. "It's the writer of this disc trying to be funny. Well, he didn't write the disc, per say, but he copied the information to the disc and then tried to code it so he'd be the only one who could read it. It's supposed to look like mumbo jumbo for those who try to read it without the correct password."

She vaguely heard him ask another question, but instead of answering she focused on the word she'd singled out. It didn't make sense with the rest of the sentence. Thinking it over, she noticed that if she replaced it… There! And then if she altered that…

A few minutes later the machine was printing out the correct information from the disc, and Valeria was inserting her own little password just to throw Dist off if he ever got the disc back. The way she thought, Dist likely hadn't recruited Jade into helping him, and if he was up to something that could harm Peony, then Valeria had to try and halt him somehow, right?

Besides, it wasn't her fault that Dist tended to talk a lot, or rant, more like. Either way, since she used to hang out around Dist all the time, she'd learned a lot of things she doubted Jade would've told her. It was also because of Dist that she had any knowledge of fon machines, the normal types and the fomicry types that he tended to toy around with the most, not including his robots. Of course she would learn a lot about his habits when it came to things like that. Because of that, tinkering with machines had become a habit of hers, though she didn't do it that often anymore. Not after the last one blew up. Three people were still mad at her about that.

Grabbing the disc, Valeria allowed the butler to get the papers, and together the two walked back to Astor's room. There, she handed the disc to Jade who then passed it along to Guy, which made her wonder just what was going on in Jade's head, since he was clearly the one who would most understand what was on the disc. She likely wouldn't figure it out, considering she didn't like the scientific aspect of what went on with the fon machines, she just tended to like tinkering occasionally. Though if she remembered correctly, she'd accidentally helped Dist with one of his robots once, having worked on a mechanism that Dist had loved so much he'd bribed her for use of it. She wondered if he still had that…

Guy looked surprised at how fast the results had been delivered. "Thanks."

"That's a lot!" Luke exclaimed, peering at the large stack of papers that the butler handed to Guy.

"I guess we'll read them on the ship."

"Then let's be going," Jade stood, walked over to Valeria and grabbed her arm as she tried to get Nyla and sneak away. He then turned to Astor, "Thank you for your assistance."

Astor waved off the praise, "Any time you need something, please don't hesitate to let me know. Hee hee hee."

The laugh crawled up Valeria's spine, and she really wanted to smack Astor just to get him to stop, even if it was counterproductive. So instead, she whistled to Nyla, who padded along behind her as she was dragged outside by Jade.

"Let go. I'm not going to run, you'd just stop me after all…"

Luckily for her, Jade listened, and this allowed Valeria to trail toward the back of the group as they headed for the southern area of Chesedonia. This had Valeria wondering what it was Jade was caught up in. He had a Fabre, who if Valeria remembered correctly, was one of the higher noble houses of Kimlasca, two Oracle Knights, since Valeria could practically smell the soldier vibe from Tear, a servant boy, who Valeria could swear looked familiar though she didn't know why, and of course Fon Master Ion, the person she had to keep from either running away from or hugging, which just baffled her.

"Ah, here you are. The ship is ready. Please come to the Kimlasca-side port—" a soldier began, though Valeria didn't stop to hear anything else as she noticed someone running at them. The person ran into Guy, side-swiping him, causing him to fall over and drop the documents that he'd been carrying. Moving quickly, Valeria, who had been nearest to Guy while still managing to remain a decent distance to not cause his phobia to activate, dashed forward to swipe up half of the documents that tried to blow away in the wind. The moment she had her hands on those, she looked up and had to keep from dropping them again.

"Sync?!"

The green-haired boy flinched back at her cry, obviously surprised that he saw her again after she'd run off earlier. Valeria frowned as she noticed he'd collected the fallen fonic disc. Putting two and two together she realized he was collecting the information for Dist, though she didn't know why, since from what she remembered Sync hated Dist.

The boy seemed to collect himself and inched toward Guy instead of her, not yet realizing she held half of the documents that he likely wanted as well. "Hand those over!"

Jade pulled at Valeria, looking at the group, "We shouldn't cause a scene here. To the ship!"

The others dashed off immediately, but Valeria hesitated. She looked over at the God General, "What are you doing, Sync?"

"Valeria, come!"

One backwards glance was all she left for him before she heeded Jade's command and hopped on Nyla. The Arka sped toward the loading dock right behind the rest of the group. She passed by most of the others and leapt onto the ship even though it hadn't even started moving yet. The moment the Arka's paws touched the ship, Valeria slid off its back and looked toward the bazaar they'd just come from. Half of the others were still racing onto the ship and Sync was close behind Luke, who carried that little furball of his.

After watching in amusement as Luke nearly didn't make it onto the ship, Valeria walked over to Jade and held up the documents she'd managed to save, "I think you'd rather have these, right?"

Wordlessly, she followed the group into a cabin that had apparently been set aside for them. She curled up on Nyla once the Arka laid down in the corner. She figured she might as well get comfortable, unless Jade was willing to allow her to go out onto the deck. It wasn't like she could run off, since the boat had already left the dock. The thought had her pausing, since when did she listen to Jade's order again?

Then again, she remembered the last time she tried to duel against him for the right to run around the Malkuth Military Headquarters without an escort for the rest of the month. It happened almost five months ago, and she still had bruises on her butt from him wiping the floor with her. So listening to him probably wasn't the worst idea.

Since napping didn't seem to be possible with all their chatter, she figured she might as well listen and try to find out more about them.

Luke collapsed in his chair with a groan, "If we made it this far, we should be in the clear, right?"

Guy rubbed his arm where Sync struck him, and placed the documents on the table, "Damn, I lost part of the documents when Sync attacked."

Jade shook his head, "No you didn't, Valeria managed to grab most of the ones that you did drop."

She sighed, "Not all of it, a couple of pieces landed near Sync and I didn't think I could get away with grabbing them. Got most of the rest, though."

"Hmm, well you did your best," he started looking through the notes Valeria handed to him before, "It looks like isofon research. 3.14159265358979323846… This is Lorelei's fonon frequency."

Valeria groaned, stifling the noise in Nyla's fur. She hated talk of Lorelei. She'd been involved in it constantly when dealing with a couple of soldiers and teachers a while back, and she was sick of hearing it. Not to mention her past had dealt with the sentient as well, since she had a habit of running off to Daath quite a bit, and that alone made her want to hit someone. Shifting once more, she sat up and stared at the group, no longer willing to try and nap, though she was intrigued by the confused look on Luke's face.

"Lorelei? Isofons? Fonon frequencies? What the heck are you talking about?"

Eyes wide, Valeria wondered how sheltered this kid was if he didn't know about Lorelei. Then again… Nope, she really doubted that. Then again... She hadn't thought it earlier when she'd first met Luke, so maybe she'd wait until she knew him a little better.

"Lorelei is the name for the aggregate sentience of the seventh fonon," Tear explained.

Anise took over moments later, allowing for a better definition of what Lorelei was, "When a certain amount of a particular fonon gathers together, it becomes sentient. Control that, and you can perform high level fonic artes."

"Each one has a name. The first fonon sentience is called 'Shadow'; the sixth is called 'Rem', and so on."

Finding it insulting that Guy only mentioned the two, Valeria continued, "There's also Gnome, the second, Sylph, the third, Undine, the fourth and Efreet, the fifth."

"Lorelei still hasn't been observed. Its existence is hypothetical," Jade added, Valeria could tell it was mostly as an afterthought though.

"Huh...how come all of you know this stuff?"

Guy scratched the back of his head, looking to the side, "Well...it's actually common knowledge."

Tear cut in, making sure to take the focus off Guy for the moment, "It's okay, Luke. You can't help it. Just keep learning from here on, and you'll be fine."

Valeria tilted her head to the side, thinking of one of the first times she had gotten into a long conversation about these things. She'd been in Daath visiting Dist, and had gotten annoyed when he tried teaching her a few things, so she'd walked off. The conversation had been going nowhere, and she'd wanted to go and train with someone. Yet Dist had made sure she learned a bit more, even if he hadn't been trying to teach her at the moment. He had claimed at the time that she needed a more intimate understanding of the sentients, since she had been trying to learn some fonic artes. So her studies, which had begun a few years prior, were expanded whether she liked it or not.

"—matter emits a fonon frequency. They're like fingerprints; no two frequencies are the same—" When Tear mentioned that, something bounced around in Valeria's mind trying to get her to pay more attention, as if there was a small piece of information that might be helpful. She was barely listening to the conversation, though another piece filtered into her thoughts,"—Isofons are two entities that have the exact same fonon frequency. Of course, they don't exist unless artificially created."

When Jade began speaking, Valeria listened, since it was rare that he gave information like this. "Of course, if isofons were common, we'd have our hands full with hyperresonances everywhere. Isofon research holds potential for weapons development, so the military has their eye on it."

"That 'fomicry' technology they worked on a long time ago can make isofons, right?"

Anise's question put up another flag in Valeria's mind, though since she was sleep deprived she wasn't sure she would be able to put any more useful information together. When was the last time she had a good amount of sleep? Wait, she vaguely recalled falling asleep on the night of the full moon...which was two nights ago. Since then she'd only had a few small naps here and there, mostly because she didn't feel comfortable falling asleep completely near others she didn't know.

Valeria stared at Luke, his face confused, and she realized she'd missed another flag in her brain, yet she had a feeling she knew what it was trying to tell her. It suddenly clicked and she blamed the fact that she had mostly been looking for a way to get away from Jade that she hadn't realized it before. Luke looked—

A solider came running into the room, cutting off Valeria's thoughts as the ship suddenly started shaking. Leaping to her feet, Valeria almost fell over onto Nyla again when the shaking continued. "Emergency! A large number of monsters and an unidentified fontech signature approaching from Chesedonia!"

Valeria had been moving toward the door, but leapt to the side right as oracle knights barged into the room, heading instantly toward the group huddled around the table.

"Valeria, down!"

Not thinking twice, Valeria hit the deck as an energy blast hit the soldiers and sent them into the wall where Tear managed to knife them before they could retaliate. "Can we assume their goal is to stop Ion and the letter from reaching Kimlasca?"

The shocked look Guy gave Tear had Valeria wondering a few things. "You don't suppose they'd try to just sink the whole ship, do you?"

Jade shook his head at the blond's question, "But if they intended to sink us, they wouldn't have come storming aboard."

"Then they're trying to take it over!" Anise exclaimed.

Guy sighed, "So then I guess we have to secure the bridge before they do?"

Jade's grin would be creepy if Valeria wasn't so used to it, "Exactly."

"Why do those Oracle guys want to start a war so badly? What a pain..."

"Luke, there's no time for complaints. Let's go," Jade paused for a second, looking at Valeria, who was still crouched on the floor. "Valeria would you—"

"I'm not hiding in the room like a coward. Nyla and I will help take back the bridge." It was insulting to her that Jade would even think she wouldn't help out! Muttering under her breath, Valeria led Nyla out of the room and into the hall, siccing the pet on another soldier when he got too close. She rushed past the soldiers, a couple seeming surprised to see the Arka and its master as they ran up the stairs. Turning around and thinking things through, Valeria looked at Nyla. "Go upstairs to the control room and guard the captain. I'll check outside and see if I can't find out what's going on."

As she ran outside, the rest of the group caught up, obviously having less of a trouble once Nyla had taken out the soldiers that had been trying to block the way. The sight that greeted them when they reached outside had Valeria pausing and trying not to fall over laughing.

"Argh! Why, you little…"

The little robot hopped up and down in front of the steward, brandishing a glowing stone, "Now it belongs to me, the great Barrelow X!"

The steward made a grab for the stone, but the robot skirted away just in time. "Give back that fonstone!"

"No! We're going to use it in an experiment!" cried the robot as it maneuvered away, heading further out onto the ship.

"What's going on?" Luke was looking from where the robot had been standing to where Valeria was hunched over, trying to contain her laughter.

"That weird robot stole the fonstone fragment!" the steward cried out in shock, falling to the ground in despair.

"Fonstone fragment? Does it want it for fontech work?"

Jade sighed and nodded in response to Guy's question, "Most likely. And considering the tacky design of that robot, I have a feeling I know who's behind this..."

Luke looked over at him now, surprised at the Colonel admitting to something, "You do, Colonel?"

"Unfortunately, I think so. And I believe Valeria realizes who it might be as well, considering her laughter," Jade observed, looking at the blonde clutching her stomach. "At any rate, that fonstone fragment is a valuable resource. Let's get it back. Come along, Valeria."

The group ran after the robot, occasionally a few of them fell over once the ship started shaking, allowing the robot to once again skirt around the group and escape further onto the ship. Valeria barely even tried to keep up with the robot, she was just laughing and content to watch the group struggle to try and catch the robot. Even Jade was amused by it, seeing as he was doing the same thing she was: watching most of the group flounder around like idiots.

It took them a little while, but they managed to trap the robot and keep it from rushing off again.

"Gah! Don't interfere!"

Guy seemed the most annoyed, not that Valeria was surprised, seeing as he'd face planted twice while trying to grab the thing. He unsheathed his sword and held it out toward the robot, "If you don't want to get smashed, hand over that fonstone."

"That's extortion! You're evil! But I'm scared, so I'll give it back…" It dropped the fonstone where it was and moved to the ship's railing, "You haven't heard the last of me!" Barrelow X cried, hopping over the edge.

Luke tilted his head, "It ran away…"

Anise raised her hand, "Um, is it okay for it to get wet?"

That comment had Valeria clutching her side again as the robot could be heard screaming in what they could only assume was pain. Leave it to Dist to program a robot with like that. She smacked her head into the side of the ship and laughed even more, unable to stand the stupidity of it. It was just the absurdity she'd become accustomed to over the years, but it was still hilarious to watch events unfold like that.

Jade sighed, "Naturally we'll leave it alone."

The steward ran up to them and expressed his gratitude, though it meant little to Valeria since all she did was sit back and watch the idiocy transpire. Still, according to one of the others, the steward gave them a nice reward.

Together this time, they walked out onto the main deck, Valeria walking all the way to the edge and peering over. Water chose that moment to splash up over the ship as it rocked again, and the splash managed to hit her in the face, getting her hair all wet. The furball was next to her at the time and squeaked his shock, though Valeria's glare kept him from saying anything to the others about what had just occurred. She had been ignoring the group since they had been talking about random things, and she believed Luke was complaining as well, was that all he ever did?

Laughter from a familiar source had her walking back toward the group, yet she did her best to stay in the background, "Listen, you ignorant savages, and you shall hear my beautiful name. I am the most graceful member of the Six God-Generals, the one and only, Dist the-"

"Well if it isn't Dist the Runny!" Jade called out, interrupting Dist. Valeria giggled softly at the nickname.

"The Rose! R-O-S-E, rose! Dist the Rose!"

"You mean Dist the Reaper," Anise corrected, her arms crossing.

"Silence! I refuse to accept that name! It's Rose! ROSE!"

Luke staggered back a pace, shock practically radiating from him, though Valeria didn't know why. Had he run into Dist before? "What, you know him?"

"I'm in the Oracle Knights too so…" Anise admitted, then she quickly turned to stare at Jade, "But why do you know him, Colonel?"

"I, the genius Dist, once counted that duplicitous snake Jade amongst my friends."

"Which Jade is that? I don't know any Jades with such poor taste in friends," Jade's offhanded reply came.

"What did you say?!"

"Ah ah, careful now, you know how your nose runs when you get mad."

"Grrrrr! No it doesn't! Enough of this! Now, hand over the fon disc data!"

"You mean this?" About three things happened at once, Jade held up the data, Valeria ran forward to try and stop what she knew was about to happen, and Luke rushed forward as well, attempting to get at Dist with the weapon he'd just unsheathed. In the moment that Jade revealed the data, Dist had quickly made an attempt to grab at it, halting Valeria's actions to stop him and knocking her over into Luke. The two then fell down in a heap, Luke's weapon clattering off to the side.

Valeria blinked, looking up and noticing there was a body above her. She didn't notice who it was, she didn't care, she just focused on the fact that it was a male. Her mind became blank, a rush of noiselessness assaulted her ears and she began to breathe heavily as the person on top of her shifted around, legs sliding in between her own.

_A hand reached out to her, sliding against her face to brush tears away, a grin stretching the face that had gleaming merciless eyes that seemed almost smug as she struggled to try and get away. Hands clutched her shoulders, shoving her to the side, making her topple over and off her feet._

_The sick laughter continued as she was pinned to the floor—_

Her mind blanched once more, trying to shield her from her own memories, though it cleared again when the body above her tried to get up. The movement causing her mind to freak again. She heard others shouting, one said 'Move', another said 'Stop'. Each voice sounded familiar, but she couldn't pinpoint why.

_—__the hands tore into her, inflicting so much pain. Blood welled above the surface, her side screamed in agony. Laughter. That laughter continued as more and more pain brewed in the forefront. A twinge filled her as the wounds began to heal themselves, why did they do that? Didn't they know they'd just be opened once more? The laughter turned darker as more pain was inflicted, the wounds that had been healed were once more being torn apart, blood seeping through the remnants of the clothes she'd had, filling the cracks within the stones—_

Valeria screamed, her hands, which she'd thought had been pinned, flailed about, striking against the one over her. She felt tears saturating her skin, she felt the one above her trying to grab her, it was then that she once again heard the other voices yelling at someone to stop. Off to the side a shadow approached quickly and suddenly the one covering her was gone. Her panic wouldn't leave, she felt confined, another shadow approached but she didn't allow it closer, scrambling back, she felt liquid on her hands, and when she looked down she saw blood.

That was the last Valeria remembered before blacking out, her head hitting the deck with a loud thump.

**...**

Jade had known it was Dist who was leading the Oracle Knights on the ship the moment they attacked. The meticulously planned, yet silly attacks practically screamed that idiot all over it, and apparently Valeria had realized it as well. Although she hadn't been as vocal about it until she'd seen the robot. Still, if she'd realized it was Dist, Jade would've thought she would back down and let everyone else handle it, and in a sense she had, until he brought out the fonic disc data.

He'd seen her coming at Dist from the corner of his eye and couldn't warn her soon enough about Luke, so the moment Dist snatched the pages from him, he'd also knocked into her.

Dist laughed triumphantly, the stupid grin Peony named one of his rappigs for plastered on his face, "How careless, Jade!"

He was tempted to say a smart remark that he'd already memorized the contents, but instead he looked over to see what happened to Valeria. Dist seemed to realize something was wrong and turned to see what was going on as well, his laughter dying out when he noticed the redhead lying on top of the blonde. Jade could already see the sheer panic that was starting to come across Valeria right as Luke attempted to get up, moving his legs in between hers.

"Luke, don't move, stop!"

The redhead halted instantly, confusion on his face as everyone stared in shock at what was going on. Dist had stopped taunting them, which seemed to unnerve half of the group. He even cried out in shock at the scene before him, so Jade knew that Dist still cared in some manner about the blonde girl he'd helped out years before. Jade was too afraid to try and get near Valeria, and he made a sign that the others took as a meaning to get back, though Luke had seen the movement and tried to heed it as well. The movement only caused Valeria to begin screaming, her cries echoing all around them as her small arms flailed about and hit Luke, which in turn had him trying to grab her to stop her from hitting him.

"Let her go, boy, that isn't helping!"

Luke didn't listen to Dist, but Jade took his moment's hesitation to rush forward and pull him off of Valeria, noticing that there was blood on her hands, though when he looked at Luke he came to the conclusion the blood wasn't his. Dist moved toward Valeria next, attempting to calm her down, but she scrambled back. Perhaps a little too fast, for in the next moment she stumbled and fell to the ground, hitting her head upon the deck and falling unconscious.

Guy took the next move, running at Dist to keep him away from Valeria as Tear ran over to try and heal her. Anise called out to Luke, and he looked up right as his weapon was thrown back to him, allowing him to jump into the fray right as Dist summoned one of his detestable fon machines in a means of self-dense. Although Jade had no doubt he'd planned on attacking them even before Valeria's appearance threw him off.

Standing to the back, Jade kept his eyes on the robot, even though he was sorely tempted to check behind him to see if Tear had made any headway with Valeria. Slipping into a casting stance, he began to channel fourth fonons, summoning a Splash right as Anise had leapt to the side to try and minimize the damage from a swipe from one of the machine's arms. The instant his arte was finished, Guy and Luke both circled the machine and proceeded to strike at the sides where the arte had done the most damage. The Fon Master Guardian backed up to Jade's side next, slipping into her own casting stance, light fonons gathering to her as she cast Limited.

The arte hit the machine, though it did little effect, leaving Anise to grumble about how annoying machines were. Having figured that her arte wouldn't do much damage, Jade had another Splash ready, yelling to the swordsmen to get out of the way as the arte took form above the machine's head. Luke leapt to the side while Guy managed another strike to the machine's inner wires before having to lunge out of the way right before the water from Jade's spell took form and plummeted downward.

Unfortunately, Dist managed to get the machine mostly out of the way so the damage wasn't too great. Guy lunged at it again, only to be hit on the side as it turned to face him, its arm forcing the blond swordsman to go careening back into the railing of the ship, denting the poles forming the rails, a few falling off the ship and almost had him falling overboard. Luke ran to stand in front of his friend when the robot made a move to go towards him, holding his blade up and charging towards the robot's side, once more attempting to damage the wiring. Anise was soon at his side, using Tokunaga to hold back the robot right as Guy finally managed to get up. Jade then took that moment to begin casting again, the others taking heed right as the arte formed and water managed to engulf the machine.

Anise took the next move and ran at the machine, using Tokunaga's arms to release a dual punishment. That coupled with the damage from the water sent the machine flying into the air.

Guy leapt towards it, "Void tempest!"

The attack sent the machine careening backwards and into the ocean, not that Jade minded as he turned his back on the incident and quickly went to Valeria's side, "It'll take more than that to kill him. He has the tenacity of a cockroach…"

Tear looked up at Jade, "The only damage I found on her was from her hands, it looked like she clawed against the deck while striking Luke. I healed that, but she hasn't woken up." She looked over at Luke then, "Did she hurt you?"

Luke walked over, stopping when Jade looked at him, "She didn't do much, mostly just tried to push me away. What was that about, anyway? I didn't do anything to her!"

Jade sighed and shook his head. It wasn't his place to explain things to them, even if he wanted to, "I need to tend to her for now. Guy, would you check on the bridge? I believe Nyla is there as well. Tell her to head to the room, she will understand you. Everyone else, please check and see if anyone else on the ship is injured."

He didn't even wait for a reply, lifting Valeria up carefully, thankful that she was only a little bigger than Anise. He made his way back toward the room they'd all talked in earlier, then hesitated just a moment before going into the room across the hall, since he recalled no one else was there. Right as he set her down on the bed, a scratching sound was at the door, so he turned and let the Arka in. He knew she would be able to smell them in another room. Nyla moved to Valeria and began licking her. Not sure how long it would take for the girl to awaken, Jade left the Arka to comfort her while going to check on the situation above, mentally cursing Dist for causing it in the first place.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:**

**Mara: We apologize for the wait. We had originally planned on posting sooner than this but there was a lot of things that got in the way. Chief of which was RK's laptop dying on us and we lost the whole chapter right as we were about done with it. Luckily not everything was lost but we did have to rewrite this from scratch. We did lose what we originally liked about the chapter but we still hope you enjoy it.**

**We would also love it if you would review, tell us what you like/dislike or what you might be looking forward to seeing.**

**As always, neither myself nor RK own Tales of the Abyss, we only own Valeria and any of our original ideas for the plot. And we also have to say thank you, as always, to our Beta, IHaveNoIdea8 who checks our work and makes it look nice and pretty. **

**RK would be here but she has been dealing with a lot of stress, but she still hope you'll enjoy the chapter, and as I mentioned, please review.**

* * *

The ship docked in Baticul harbor, and it was all Valeria could do to get herself off the bed she had been lying on with Nyla during their trip. No one had come to bother them, and she had a feeling it was because Jade had told the others to leave her alone. She almost wished he hadn't done that; it would've given her less time to fret over whether or not they were mad at her for something she couldn't entirely control.

The time alone also had her thinking, no, more like wondering, what it was that Jade would explain to them about her situation.

Shaking her head, Valeria climbed atop Nyla and the two padded silently through the ship, making their way out to where the rest of the group was likely to be. They arrived right as the rest were about to disembark, which had Valeria quietly fuming. Did Jade think to leave her on the ship and send her back to Chesedonia for the Consulate to deal with? It didn't seem like Jade's style, but she wouldn't put it completely past him right then, since he hadn't thought he would have to deal with her.

Jade looked over as the two of them caught up. "Ah, I just finished talking to the Captain. I asked him to hold the ship until I could come back and collect you, but that doesn't seem to be necessary anymore. Are you sure you're feeling well enough to join us?"

Valeria eyed him suspiciously. "You sure you weren't trying to shove me off on someone back at the Consulate?"

"Not at all, since the likelihood of any females having been transferred in so soon are slim to none."

Since she didn't feel like getting into an argument about it, she let it drop, nudging Nyla to pad along to the side of the group, far enough away to not be bothered, yet close enough to hear what they were saying if they talked normally. Since she wasn't entirely sure what it was that Jade had told them, she figured it'd be best to remain on the safe side.

Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Jade once again talking to the Captain, then to a soldier, the soldier looking her way moments later. So that likely meant he'd just told the soldiers to not allow her onto a ship any time soon, unless he was with her. Which in turn meant she was likely stuck in Baticul, since there was no way she'd willingly go into the desert again, and the marsh was a bad place for Nyla, so she wouldn't try that one, either.

The group paused after walking further onto the docks, and Valeria noticed that there was a waiting party for them, high military from the looks of it.

"It is an honor. I am Goldberg, commander of the First Division, Kimlasca-Lanvaldear Royal Forces. Congratulations on your safe return."

Luke didn't seem too impressed, "Yeah."

"A carrier pigeon arrived with a message from Count Almandine. He said you were traveling with an emissary of peace from the Malkuth Empire," the Commander continued, looking the group over.

"I am Ion, Fon Master of the Order of Lorelei. I bear a letter from His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Peony the Ninth of the Malkuth Empire. May I ask an audience with His Majesty, King Ingobert the Sixth?"

"Of course. General Cecille here will be responsible for escorting you to the castle," he nodded to the lady at his side, and Valeria tilted her head, wondering why that name sounded familiar. She vaguely recalled someone mentioning the name a while back in Malkuth Headquarters, though she didn't remember who.

"Brigadier General Cecille, at your service," both the General and the Commander looked confused for a moment and Valeria looked to her side to see what had their attention. Guy looked a bit ridged and stiff, though he was clearly attempting to relax himself. "Is something wrong?"

"N-no, excuse me. I'm Guy. A servant of Luke's."

Why didn't he fully introduce himself like he had when greeting her? Valeria couldn't remember what his last name was, but still, it was odd.

"Locrian Sergeant Tear Grants, First Platoon, Oracle Knights Intelligence Division."

"Ionian Sergeant Anise Tatlin, Oracle Knights Fon Master Guardian."

"Colonel Jade Curtiss, commander of the Third Division, Malkuth Imperial Forces. I represent His Imperial Majesty."

Before Valeria could introduce herself, the two Kimlascans looked at Jade in surprise. She suppressed an eyeroll. It wasn't that surprising the two other soldier had heard of the Necromancer.

"You're _the_ Jade Curtiss?!"

"You taught me a painful lesson in our battle in northern Chesedonia, General Cecille."

"You _must_ be joking. My forces were virtually wiped out..."

Cecille's admission had a realization go off in Valeria's head. She recalled talking with her brother on a few occasions about the battle that Jade had been a part of. They'd been going over the orders that both sides had issued in the past, mostly because it was a learning experience for Valeria, also because her brother seemed to have a fix on the battle for some reason, as if he cared more about who had participated than the outcome of the battle itself.

"You're well known as the Emperor's personal confidant, Colonel. If you're here, Malkuth must indeed be serious," Goldberg commented.

"Tensions along the border are greater now than at the start of the Hod War. We have no choice but to be serious."

Valeria was growing bored with the introductions and topic they chose. She was tired and hungry. Even so, she still noticed the tension within Guy at Jade's words. It brought out many questions that Valeria didn't have answers to, but at the moment there wasn't much she could do about it. Lying herself completely on Nyla, she listened without much interest until they mentioned that they were heading up to the castle.

"Thank you, Luke. I appreciate the support," Valeria heard the Fon Master say.

"I'm impressed, Luke. You truly understand your responsibility." What responsibilities were Tear talking about? Did Luke have some sort of standing here more so than just being a Fabre?

"Oh, uh...yeah."

"Understood. In that case, I shall send General Cecille to inform His Grace, Duke Fabre. If you would, General Cecille," Commander Goldberg nodded to her.

"Yes, sir."

As the General walked away, Valeria sat up and looked at Jade, wondering what he was planning on doing with her. She didn't get an answer from him, instead they continued onward until they reached the main square of Baticul, with Luke looking around like he'd never seen the place before. Before Valeria could comment on this, Guy beat her to it.

"What? You're acting like you've never seen it before."

"I can't help it! I don't remember!"

"Oh...that's right. You've never been outside since you lost your memory."

Valeria looked from Luke to Guy and tilted her head. "What do you mean by that? His memory is gone?"

Guy looked surprised at Valeria's question; as if he'd forgotten she was there. "I forgot, you haven't heard everything. Seven years ago Luke lost his memories from the time he was born until the time we found him at Choral Castle. That's one of the reasons we had to explain things back on the ferry."

Something really didn't add up with Luke's memory loss, and if she hadn't been so riled up and worn out from what happened on the ferry, she might've questioned it more, but at the moment she pushed the thought away, deciding to look into it later if she had the chance. Instead she looked around, since she was a Malkuth citizen, she hadn't really had a reason to visit the capital of Kimlasca, so it was impressive for her to behold.

Yet it wasn't her type of place, since she wasn't very happy with all the smoke and steam in the air. Her type of place was definitely Grand Chokmah, since it was surrounded by water, which was her element of choice. Still, she won't deny that Baticul had some pretty interesting architecture that helped create the massive city that loomed above them.

Apparently Anise agreed, "Wow, what a city! It goes straight up!"

"You could fit two or three Cheagle Woods in here! Maybe more!" Mieu exclaimed, his high pitched voice annoying both Valeria and Nyla as he bounced around next to Anise.

Guy had a thoughtful look on his face, "This city was built on a depression in the ground created when a fonstone fell from the sky."

"Meaning it's protected by natural walls. It's a logical design."

Valeria agreed with Tear. It was logical, it meant that there were a lot of good locations to hole up in in case of a siege, especially if the port was sealed. But it also meant that there were a lot of places people might be able to burrow into, either to get into or out of the city. Even to just hide stuff, which meant Valeria had a section of the city to locate later.

The group walked around for a while, Goldberg trailing them along with a few soldiers. It was tempting to Valeria to try and sneak away, but she doubted she'd manage it without Jade going after her. Yet at the same time she wasn't willing to go up any further within this city. For some reason the thought of it just made her feel uneasy. It was likely due to the fact that she didn't think she could be civil when dealing with a King. In her mind she didn't view Peony as a King or Emperor, just as someone to talk with in a friendly manner. So the thought of having to deal with someone in high power who wouldn't tolerate her odd quirks had Valeria wanting to run the other way.

As they finished looking around town and began heading to the cable car that would likely lead them up to the next level, Jade stopped the group. "Apologies, but I need to get Valeria a room at the inn before we proceed. I'm afraid it wouldn't be a good idea to take her into an audience with the King, especially since she has no reason to be privy to the information that will be discussed."

"His Majesty is sure to offer rooms for the emissaries; she could stay in one of those rooms while you have your audience with the King," Goldberg offered.

Jade shook his head, "We appreciate the offer, but in all likelihood the moment we left the room she would leave and come back down to this level regardless of the accommodations. It won't take long, please wait right here."

With that, Jade escorted Valeria and Nyla into the nearest inn, walking up to the receptionist to talk about getting a room for her. In the end, they were led into in a small bedroom with two large beds and a window overlooking a small garden. Nyla growled at Jade when he moved to touch her and instead hopped up on a bed once Valeria got off her back, curling into a ball and shutting her eyes. Valeria vaguely wondered why the inn would be okay with such a large pet staying inside. Jade chuckled and went to leave the room, but paused once Valeria called his name.

"Jade? What did you tell the others? And why did you let me get a room here?"

Now he sighed, "I didn't tell them anything. It isn't my story to tell, after all. As for the room, I wasn't lying, you don't do well with authority if I recall. The only thing I request of you is that you remain here while I'm away, I'll check up on you later."

Jade left to go catch up with the others, and ten minutes later Valeria roused Nyla and the two left the inn despite Jade's request, telling the inn keeper that they'll be back later for supper. Once more they moved around the city, though this time it was easier since they weren't surrounded by a large group of people. And for some odd reason no one was particularly worried about a large creature roaming around the city, not that Valeria would've minded either way. She was looking for something in particular, a sign or sigil that would symbolize what it was she was searching for. It probably wasn't the smartest thing to do, considering she was probably still on the search list. But it was the only place she'd likely get the information she wanted without as much hassle as it would be if she tried to get it out here.

It took about an hour before she finally managed to find what she was looking for. Above the door of a seemingly run down antique shop was the symbol of a raven with its wings spread, an arrow in its beak. Gathering courage, Valeria nudged Nyla to head toward the door, sliding from her back so she could open it to lead the Arka inside.

The interior of the building seemed just as run down as the outside, dimly lit, most of the shelves empty or in a chaotic mess. At the far end of the shop a wide door sat nestled in the wall carved from the crater Baticul was built into, and in front of that door was the counter at which sat a bored looking man. He straightened up once Valeria stopped in front of him and eyed her and Nyla with thinly veiled bored interest.

"What can I do for ya?"

"I'd like to see your _special_ wares."

The man jolted slightly, almost unnoticeably, and now looked at Valeria with suspicion in his eyes. It disappeared in an instant and was replaced with a flippant tone. "Ain't got no special wares."

Valeria sighed, she'd known the guy would likely be like this, since they didn't want just anyone to get into the stores that were hidden from the general public, but she still thought that if he'd seen the Arka, he would assume she had some sort of standing. Apparently not.

"Knowledge is the weapon of Ravens, Crows feast truly on death."

"Thus we too are the seekers of knowledge," the man acknowledged, "Sorry 'bout that, right this way…?"

Valeria hesitated, technically she did have a title for this place but it wouldn't get her anywhere. It would likely just alert the people she didn't want to deal with that she was there. "…Val."

"Of course, Val."

He opened the counter and allowed them to walk to the door, flipping a switch on the side of the door to both unlock this door while locking the front door to keep outsiders from coming in while the secondary door was open. The shop keeper nodded to Valeria, and she led Nyla into the narrowed hallway, ignoring the claustrophobic feeling that began to creep within her spine the moment the man closed the door behind them. She had, after all, wanted to come down here, so she shouldn't turn back now.

As she led the Arka down the long set of stairs that would lead the two of them to their destination, Valeria thought about the rules that bound this place together. Like all other cities, Baticul has a niche of the city set apart from normal eyes. This little niche could be larger or smaller depending on the city that it's a part of, but no matter what there is a section of the Underworld in a city.

The Underworld is just as it seems, it's a world beneath the normal one, where the normal rules of society are bent or ignored in favor of other ways of life. Many different types of trade happened in the Underworld: legal and illegal, though mostly the latter. The types of purchases tended to vary depending on the area. Thieves were the most abundant of the dealers down in the Underworld, but after thieves came the type of people that were Valeria's current interest.

Information Dealers.

Those people were the most influential types within the society that is the Underworld. Even the "rulers" of the Underworld were where they were because of the information they had. And the network of information within the place was extensive, stretching from peasants to Nobles and through every channel there was in the world. Almost nothing was secret from those within the Underworld, and they helped shape the future of Auldrant.

Or so the Info Leaders said.

In truth Valeria didn't know if they were all-knowing, but they should have known what she wanted information about, hence the reason she was there.

There were many other sides to the Underworld as well, all sorts of illegal kinds of jobs that helped make the secret society what it was. They helped to keep it afloat within the world. Merchants who dealt in weaponry, black market items and the like. Scientists who delved further into the mysteries of all types of fomicry, and other banned technologies. Trackers, those who hunted down both people and animals. Smugglers who could get almost any kind of cargo out of any city. Assassins, those who hunted any type of target if they thought the money was worth it. And even Slavers, those were infamous in the Underworld for going after any type of human and breaking them of their hold on the world to become meager slaves to serve the 'mighty'. Each group of Underworlders had a leader, sometimes two, who sat on a Council that ran the corners of the Underworld and kept it from prying eyes.

The entire thing was massive, built decades, possibly centuries ago, to further life on Auldrant even if it was to help just one group of people at a time.

And Valeria remembered being a part of it from an early age even though she might've wished differently.

Shaking her head, Valeria pushed open the door that was at the end of the long hallway and down the many stairs, heading further into the Underworld. Upon first opening the door, Valeria was assaulted by the noise. Many voices and cries echoed around her swiftly that hadn't been there moments before, somehow hidden behind a noiseless door. Nyla whimpered, her nose picking up the many types of animals that were probably being held down there, so Valeria ran her hand across the Arka's head, trying to comfort the beast as they walked into the spacious cavern that had been carved from the crater of Baticul's walls. Stalls upon stalls nestled in dozens, maybe even hundreds of rows filled the center of the cavern while upon the edges people rested and relaxed against the walls or on benches and couches.

Valeria also noted that there were many other doors that seemed to be entrances of the Underworld's cavern, though she hadn't seen any other sigils being shown to signify where those locations would be, so maybe the doors were for the smugglers, though she wasn't sure. A large archway on the far right of the cavern showed a scroll above the entryway, carved with detail into the stone, the location of all the information dealers.

Pushing Nyla toward the right, Valeria began walking, unconsciously tugging up the sleeve of her right glove. She didn't want to attract too much attention, though there wasn't much that would make others interested in them. She was fine as long as her secret remained a secret. Well, as much of a secret that could be kept down here.

"Who would've thought you'd be one of us. It's interesting to say the least."

Valeria flinched away from the voice, not having noticed the guy that had kept pace with her and Nyla for the past few minutes while she'd been thinking. Long, silver hair swept over one shoulder, and uneven bangs hung limply to hide barely visible amber eyes. He stood a full head taller than Valeria, but looked like he was slouching, as though he wanted to seem shorter than he was. Why was that?

Upon further inspection, Valeria noted that he also dressed so that no one would look twice at him, not that his hair wouldn't gather attention already. Generic black pants, pale brown tunic with frayed edges, and worn down black, travel-ready boots. The only item on his person that might gain attention was a black side pack, wrapping from his right hip and inching along his waist towards his stomach before becoming the strands that tied it together, while the pack also swept down and strapped to his right leg, silver edging outlining the pouches that covered every inch of the material.

"Excuse me?"

The man chuckled softly before walking ahead of her and turning back to face her, keeping pace as he walked backwards. "I was on the ferry earlier, you and your Arka saved li'l ol' me from being attacked by some soldiers. It was _really_ scary!"

Valeria frowned at him, not really liking the sarcasm, and his grin clearly showed he knew what the reaction he'd get was. It also bothered her that he seemed to know exactly where she was going, since he led the way. "Scary huh? I doubt that, since you're grinning like a fool."

"Oh no, you got me. Whatever shall I do?"

"Tell me what you mean."

"Just thought that my savior would be a little nobler than to traverse down here where the shadows like to play," He turned around again, linking his hands behind his head and slowing to walk next to her, yet, as Valeria noted, far enough away so that he wouldn't accidentally bump her. "Also thought you'd be holing up in a room somewhere so you wouldn't be bothered."

"Bothered?"

"Just that the kid had scared you pretty bad, and your hands had been wounded, right?"

Valeria stopped, causing Nyla to bump into her. The man stopped, tilting his head to look back in surprise.

"Ah, sorry, sorry. Didn't mean to shock you, just something I noticed. I mean no harm, just wanted to say thanks for earlier and let you know that if you need a smuggler, you got one. Just go to someone around here and tell them you're looking for Drayden, I'll come find ya after. Even if I'm a few cities away, I'll come and help you, free of charge, just the first time of course."

The man, Drayden, walked off with a wave. It bothered the fonist that she'd gotten worked up so quickly, she really needed to get a grip before she lost it. She hadn't even noticed him walking next to her until he'd spoken, and Nyla had apparently been growling at him, which was why he'd walked off so quickly.

Valeria shook her head and ran her fingers through Nyla's fur to quiet her; she really did have to get herself together if this one guy was throwing her off her game.

* * *

Staggering through the door, Valeria collapsed onto the bed in the room Jade had gotten her. Her little venture into the Underworld hadn't accomplished what she'd wanted. Apparently she wasn't "high" enough to view the level of information that she'd required, though how they ranked people still eluded her.

When she'd inquired her level, they'd actually had to pause to assess her completely. According to the Dealer helping her at the time, the one named Valeria had suddenly appeared nine and a half years ago in Grand Chokmah and no one had any idea where she'd come from. From then on she'd only occasionally dealt with the Underworld, usually talking with thieves and staying away from Slavers. Because of that she was considered a Known, someone who knew about the Underworld and would occasionally show up, instead of a Piece, a person who actually acted within the Underworld and made a name for themselves one way or another. But whether this information was accurate or not was to be seen, since sometimes information was kept a secret for a reason, and those within the Underworld might actually know more than that about her past.

She was seriously tempted to fall asleep, like Nyla who had curled up on the other bed without complaint and drifted off immediately, but her stomach was growling pretty loudly. Groaning, Valeria stood once more and glanced at the sleeping Arka before walking out the door once more.

It was later than the kitchen at this inn normally served food, so Valeria decided to go out so she didn't bother the clean-up crew. She found a decent restaurant close by and sat outside, sick of being indoors after her venture into the cavernous Underground belonging to Baticul. The thought of having to go back down there was unpleasant and made her miss some of the other locations she'd been to in the past. Shaking her head, Valeria ordered a small meal when the waitress came to take her order before leaning back and staring at the levels that made up the city, still vastly impressed by how well the city was built.

"Well, this is a surprise."

Jolting upright at the voice, Valeria turned and smiled at Noir, happy to see the female thief. They'd actually seen each other in Chesedonia before Valeria'd been caught by Jade, but the Dark Wings had had to make a quick retreat due to something they'd gotten into and Valeria hadn't been able to talk with her friend at all except for a quick hello. "Noir! What're you doing here?"

"Me? I should be asking you that, girlie. We did just see each other in Chesedonia; I'm surprised you would come here."

Valeria grimaced as the thief took the seat across from her and signaled the waitress to bring a glass of water. "Wasn't entirely by choice. Jade brought me along against my will."

"Ah, well me and the boys are here for a task. Usually we'd toss this one on one of the Smugglers, but they tend to avoid what we're trying to do."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, and we definitely can't get the Slavers involved, they'd go overboard and likely do something they aren't supposed to do."

Valeria winced, looking away, "Yeah…"

"Oops, sorry. Forgot we normally steer away from them when we converse. How about you tell me who you came with and what you're up too."

Shrugging, the blonde tilted her head, "Well apparently there's some intense stuff going on. Peony sent Jade, who escorted Fon Master Ion and his guardian, Anise. Then they also had a Melodist named Tear, a noble born named Luke, and his servant, Guy. Not sure about the whole story yet, but I ditched them to go ask around in the Underworld about a few things, not that I could get much information due to my standing."

"Or lack of, you mean," Noir commented.

"Shut it. I have a reason to stay mostly away from the Underworld."

"I never said you didn't, but if you would go down and work a little you'd be able to move more freely," Noir stated, drumming her fingers on the table. Her gaze turned thoughtful. "Fon Master Ion, huh? What's he like? Never got a chance to meet him before."

"Little taller than me, pale, green hair and white robes. Nothing special if you look at him but he's actually kinda nice. Since he's a visiting emissary he has a room in the castle, and will be staying far from me tonight, which I'm thankful of, but he seems the curious type to me."

The older thief chuckled, "Interesting way of putting it. I take it Nyla is sleeping in your room?"

The quick changes in conversation were a bit odd but Valeria would go with it, "She is. Apparently she was on edge the entire time we were down there today."

"I also heard you met Drayden, and saved him while on that Ferry from earlier."

"You make it sound like I did it on purpose! He found me and told me I had a Smuggler when I wanted one. Not that I have a use for one."

"Still, he's well liked within the Underworld, and having him in your debt could open doors," Noir finished the glass of water she'd been nursing and stood, patting Valeria on the head. "It was nice seeing you, hopefully we'll see one another again when we both have free time. I have business to take care of. Watch yourself, you hear? I'd hate to find out that something happened to you."

Little did she know… "Tell York and Urushi I said hello."

The pink haired female chuckled before wandering off, leaving Valeria to her thoughts and the rest of her food. Once done, she walked back to her room and collapsed on her bed, ignoring the fact that Jade was sitting at the desk doing some sort of paperwork. She'd deal with him in the morning.


	4. Chapter 4

**RK: Sorry for the long wait! Here's the next chapter!**

**Mara: As always, neither I nor RK own Tales of the Abyss, we only own Valeria, any other OC and our original plot.**

**RK: Please don't hesitate to review! We like knowing what people think of our fic! Enjoy!**

* * *

It was still in the early hours of the morning, yet Jade was already up. Even while away from the capital of Malkuth he still had things to oversee, and paperwork needing to be completed and sent off to the right people. It had taken him most of the night to finish nearly all of the work he'd managed to keep on him during most of the chaos that he'd been involved in since the Tartarus had been taken over, and the steward in the castle had gotten his mail for him, which had included more paperwork to finish up and send off.

Jade had been considering sending a report to Peony explaining some of the things that had been going on during the journey to Baticul. The only reason he paused was due to the fact that he wasn't sure who to trust the information with, and sending a messenger would be a bit risky.

Soft snoring brought his attention to the figure lying half off the bed in the corner. Valeria was on her back, her right arm and leg hanging off the bed, almost hitting the ground. The shirt she'd stolen from Emperor Peony had ridden up, and was dangerously close to rising above her chest while the cloths and glove that had been on her left hand had fallen off soon after she'd gone to sleep. Curiously though, the right glove remained exactly where it was, as if tied to her arm. The only thing Jade had personally removed from her was the pack strapped to her thigh, mostly due to not knowing if there was anything breakable in there that would've been crushed when she tossed and turned.

He had to wonder where the blonde had been the day before. Both times he'd come by to check on her while still with the others, she hadn't been in the room. The third time, when he'd come back for the night, only Nyla had been in the room with the blonde staggering in twenty minutes later without a word and collapsing on the bed he'd meant to claim for himself, having thought the girl would curl up next to the Arka. Luckily, the chair he'd claimed for paperwork was able to recline so it didn't bother him too much. Still, he wanted to know where the girl had been during the day when he'd told her to remain in the room.

Slightly worried Valeria would soon tumble over he looked at the other bed, "Nyla, would you wake Valeria up? I'd hate for her to fall off the bed and grumble about it. It's hard enough focusing as it is."

The Arka lifted her head and snorted. Jade waited, staring at the creature as it seemed to make its decision. Hopping down from the bed, Nyla padded to where Valeria was and placed her nose against the girl's bare stomach. In less than a second, a scream was heard as Valeria shot out of bed and tumbled off the edge, away from the cold nose that had laid against her skin. Nyla snorted, hopping up on the bed Valeria had just vacated and curled up once again. The blonde, on the other hand, pulled down her shirt as she glared at Jade.

"Could've woken me up in a nicer manner."

"What would be the fun in that?"

Her scowl grew deeper, which amused Jade even more, since he actually hadn't even lifted a finger against her, yet. "So, where were you during the day?"

She blinked at him, "Here. The whole time."

Nice try. "Now, normally I'd believe you, yet I did manage to make two stops here while still wandering around with Luke and Ion. You weren't here either of those times and when I arrived the final time it was only Nyla here. I'm not going to ask again."

He kept eye contact with her as she remained silent, weighing her options of telling him the truth. Finally she sighed, "Nyla and I were exploring, it seemed like a better idea than staying cooped up in here the whole time."

"And yet you seem just as tired as before, even with a full eight hours of sleep."

"Seriously? I had eight hours?"

Technically she had seven and a half, but he wouldn't ruin it for her, since she seemed to view that as an accomplishment. "Valeria, when was the last time you slept well?"

The blonde leaned back against the bed, encircling her arms around her legs. "It's been a while. Haven't been home in a while either…" her eyes widened, as if she hadn't meant to say that aloud to him, "I mean…"

Jade sighed. "I take it Chesedonia wasn't your first stop?"

"Nope," she admitted slowly, putting a lot of emphasis on the 'p'.

"In any case, I have to head up to the castle again in a little while to have my audience with the King. I had planned on wandering around the city a bit before hand. Would you care to join me?" Normally he wouldn't offer but he did have to speak with her a little before he went up and talked with the King.

Valeria shook her head, "No, I'm probably going to go back to sleep. I dunno why, but I feel comfortable sleeping here. Normally while away from home I have trouble sleeping. I never know when someone might accidentally come into my room to clean it or not. But here? I feel fine."

Seeing no other choice, since she decided to remain in the room, he was forced to explain his plans. He really would have preferred not to, though."Well then, before I leave I might as well warn you. I was able to get a small briefing from Emperor Peony before I left Grand Chokmah. Akzeriuth is facing troubles, and I'll most likely be sent there with an ambassador from Kimlasca. In all likelihood we'll be leaving as soon as possible. That is, if the King agrees to the peace treaty."

"And what? Am I coming with you?"

"I've yet to decide. For now, I need to leave. If you're hungry, I believe the kitchen has already set things up in the dining room."

He didn't give her a chance to respond; he needed to think. Leaving the inn, Jade glanced up at the city above him. If he really had to say, he would have rather left Valeria here.

But it wouldn't be a good idea for a few particular reasons.

The main one was due to her habit of getting into trouble. She was in trouble often enough, and it was hard to get her leniency when dealing with Malkuth troops. If left here without someone to actually keep an eye on her, she would likely get into serious trouble, and if Malkuth troops were hard enough to deal with, Kimlascan ones would be a nightmare.

Another was her issues with getting close to men. While it wasn't as severe as he'd seen Guy react around women, after an episode like she'd had on the ferry, she wouldn't want to interact too closely with men. At least not men that she didn't know or trust. He'd seen her bump knuckles with a couple of men who are under her brother's command, so it wasn't that she couldn't touch them, it was mostly that she didn't trust them.

Though it didn't always used to be that way.

_Jade looked from the blonde huddled on the ground, covered in blood, to the man holding the knife in front of him. His platoon had been looking for this group for weeks, never once able to find them. It had been pure luck that they'd stumbled on the encampment when they did._

_Without wasting any time, he'd spread out his troops and had them attack the encampment, their goal being the people locked in the pens outside of tents. That in itself was cruel, as most of the people locked away weren't dressed for the harshness of the Keterberg climate. It was then that he'd heard screaming towards the south, a little ways away from the encampment._

_He'd followed the sounds to find a muscled man sitting on the stomach of a blonde female, who barely looked to be a teenager, a knife held at her throat. Jade didn't know if the man had been serious but he reacted quickly, rushing to the man and knocking him away from the girl._

_He didn't want to tear his gaze from the man as he eyed Jade and then the girl before finally laughing._

_"Don't worry WildCat, this isn't the last you'll see of me. We'll play again, someday."_

_Before Jade could finish casting a fonic arte, the man ran off. It was tempting to follow him, but the girl was severely injured. At least it looked like she was, if the blood belonged solely to her. Before he could make an attempt to speak to the girl, one of his soldiers rushed to him, explaining that while most of the men had been captured, the leader and a good portion of the men had gotten away. Jade sighed, telling the Corporal to tend to the injured and get those who had been held there to safety._

_Yet when the corporal tried to go near the blonde, she screamed._

_Her silver eyes were wide as he tried once again to get closer to her, and she attempted to scoot back away from him, dragging her already injured body across the wooden grate that had been placed on the ground. Her screams kept increasing the more the corporal tried to get closer to her, and when her back hit a metal cage she flinched away from it, though kept her eyes on the two men in front of her._

_Jade sighed and walked closer as well, intending to drag the corporal away from her and think of something else that would allow them to help her. Yet when he moved closer she didn't scream, only kept her eyes on him._

The red-eyed man shook his head, snapping his mind away from the memory of his first meeting with Valeria. Even now, he was still a little angry about what he'd seen, a man attacking such a young girl, and it had been years since the encounter. A man Valeria refused to talk about, who Jade hadn't been able to locate.

He'd been walking around for awhile, allowing his mind to wander onto other things besides the girl currently under his care. Before long, he was forced to look over when a Kimlascan soldier began walking over to him.

"Colonel Curtiss, correct?"

"I am."

"His Majesty is ready for you, they've finished early, and request your presence at the palace."

Jade nodded, "Lead the way."

**… **

Valeria sighed.

It had been about an hour and a half since Jade left. She'd gotten food, fed Nyla, and had then proceeded to climb atop the inn's roof just to get away from the idiocy of the inn keeper. Apparently, the woman seemed to believe that Valeria was one of the foreign emissaries, though Valeria had no idea how that happened, and wanted to make sure Valeria had everything she needed.

What she needed was some peace and quiet!

Her plan for half of the day was to try and rest up, since she felt comfortable there. Or rather, she had felt comfortable there. Now she was mostly annoyed. So instead of relaxing on a nice comfy bed, she was lounging around on the roof, looking out over the city. She had to admit, it was a rather nice view. It allowed her to check out a lot of the area without forcing her to walk around, plus she could people watch. It amused her greatly to watch all the people walk around Baticul, not many of the people seemed to have varying shades of hair, which was interesting to say the least. Mostly Valeria saw brown and black, not a whole lot of diversity. Though occasionally she saw an unusual shade of hair, like pink… And green…

"What the heck? Why does Noir have Ion with her?"

Sure enough, the female thief, along with York and Urushi, were leading Fon Master Ion through the streets, escorted by a single oracle knight. Valeria noticed that Ion didn't have his Guardian with him, so that meant this likely wasn't a sanctioned mission. It made her think back to the previous night when Noir mentioned that she and the boys were doing a mission that they couldn't push off to a Smuggler or a Slaver.

So they were there to steal Ion, huh?

And Valeria had a feeling Noir knew where Ion was staying because of her.

Sighing, Valeria slipped carefully from the roof and made her way toward where she'd last seen the thieves. She looked around for a moment, a little disorientated with how the city was built, but eventually came to the conclusion they'd likely been headed toward the exit.

She reached the exit to the city and then had to pause. Sure enough Noir and the others were there, but so was Sync.

"Why is Sync here? And what would they want with Ion?"

There were so many questions sprouting up in her head, and she really wished she could get some answers, but first…

"Anise, I wouldn't go out there if I were you."

The Fon Master Guardian jumped in surprise when Valeria walked up to her, dragging her back from the entrance's line of sight. She quickly turned to look at Valeria in shock.

"Where did you come from?"

"I've been following Ion for the past twenty minutes, trying to figure out what's going on. But as I came upon them I realized there was someone standing guard outside the city."

"Who?"

"Sync the Tempest."

"Oh no! I can't get Ion away from him…"

Valeria glanced upwards, debating about going and finding Jade. This was mostly for him to deal with, he was the one who was supposed to escort Ion here, so he should likely know what to do. "Only thing we can do now is locate Jade and see what he knows."

Anise looked like she was about to say something, but Valeria walked away, heading back towards the cable cars. She wasn't entirely sure which one led where, since there were numerous ones that would lead anywhere in the city, but she figured she just needed to see which one led to the highest point.

Anise caught up with her as she chose the second highest point, since the first one was closed, and stood quietly next to her. Valeria couldn't really tell if the girl was mad at her or not. Not that she minded, since she didn't know the girl at all.

The cable car opened and before Valeria could exit, Anise rushed past her.

"Luke!"

Sure enough, the redhead was walking toward the cable car with Tear and Guy, who jumped away as Anise got closer. The girl then shoved Tear out of the way so she could get closer to Luke, much to Valeria's amusement.

"I missed you! But you're always together with Tear, aren't you…"

Tear actually looked apologetic, "Oh... I-I'm sorry. But don't worry Anise. I'm not with him because I want to be."

Valeria laughed, coming over to the group right as Jade walked up. It amused her that the melodist would go from helping the red head to insulting him, though she doubted the girl realized that was an insult.

"Anise, shouldn't you be with Ion?"

"Colonel! When I woke up this morning, his bed was empty. So I went out to look for him, and ran into some people who said they had seen someone that looked like Ion leave the city with some circus performers..."

Valeria nodded, "Yeah, and then I caught her before she ran out after them, and decided to come up here to find you. Apparently the Dark Wings took a job to collect Ion."

Jade sighed, "Well this is a fine mess."

Luke tilted his head to the side "What?! But how did they know where to get Ion?"

Knowing it was her fault, Valeria decided to remain quiet about that question. So far as she knew, Jade didn't know that she was friends with the Dark Wings and for the moment it was probably a good idea that it remained a secret.

Guy spoke up, trying to calm the red head, "It doesn't really matter how they knew, all that matters is that we need to go get Ion. So let's go get them!"

It was then that Anise finally remembered why she and Valeria had come up to this level of the city. "You can't! The God-General Sync is right outside the city."

"This is bad. If the Six God-Generals are outside, they'll find out that we're going by land."

Valeria and the Guardian both looked at Tear, each having a confused look on their faces. Though it was Anise who spoke. "Huh? You're not going to Akzeriuth by ship?"

"No, that's a decoy. Damn it, we've got to find a way out..."

The moment the redhead finished talking, Valeria zeroed in on Jade, daring him to tell her which way they were heading. If he thought she would remain in this city, he was insane.

"Then take me with you on your way! If I can get outside the city, I can look for Ion!"

Luke looked between Anise and Jade, looking at the Colonel with a confused look. "What do you think, Jade?"

Jade sighed, looking annoyed with the situation that he'd been thrust into. "I suppose we can't refuse her... it sounds like Mohs isn't involved in Ion's kidnapping this time."

"That's right. Mohs was mad," Anise agreed.

"Then, Grand Maestro Mohs and the Six God-Generals really aren't connected...?"

Valeria snorted, earning a look from the Melodist who'd just spoken. Valeria held up her hands, not willing to say anything, though she remembered an incident with Sync while she'd visited nearly a year ago that had the Grand Maestro giving orders. Not that she'd admit this, Jade wasn't aware of that, visit after all.

Come to think of it, Jade likely wasn't aware of how often she'd ditched town and wandered off to other cities. She wondered what he'd think if he knew all the places she'd gone off to?

Then again, it was Jade. He probably knew more than he let on.

Luckily, he also decided to ignore her interruption as well, "Though, whether Mohs is trying to cause a war or not is a separate issue."

"What do the Six God-Generals want with Ion? He said they took him to that place called the Sephiroth, right?" Luke pondered.

Jade shrugged, "We don't have enough information to guess. Right now, we should concentrate on getting out of this city."

Guy seemed lost in thought for a moment before he snapped his fingers, "Wait... I know a way. Let's go to the abandoned factory in the old part of the city. We can get there by aircar."

Valeria held up a hand, "Wait, whoa, hold on. Jade, please tell me you're not planning what I think you're planning…"

He looked at her with a small smirk, "Ah, I forgot to mention that this morning, didn't I?"

Valeria scoffed, "Forgot to mention? You never said anything about going by land! And I'm guessing there's no way I'm staying here? No, don't answer that. I'll answer it for you. I'm not staying here."

"I'm glad you agree. Now go get Nyla and meet us—"

"Nope! Nyla and I will find our own way out of the city, there is no way I'm taking her underground in some abandoned factory, we'll find you."

"Valeria!"

Not wasting another second, Valeria turned on her heel and made her way to the cable car, getting in right before it closed. She waved at Jade as he stared at her with a frown on his face. Not that she cared, she wasn't fond of dark, damp places, as the factory was likely to be. Not to mention she had a few things she now had to pick up if she was going to survive the trek over land.

Why did Jade have to do this to her, didn't he remember how bad she was with heat?

* * *

Valeria sighed. She hadn't actually planned on coming back to this branch of the Underworld so soon, but she'd come up with nothing during her initial scouting of the city. She'd had to buy a couple of items from a few different shops, a couple of extra water bottles, a tank top, extra food, and a couple of other fun toys, so all that was left was for her was to figure out a plan of getting out of the city. There was no way she'd willingly go through that stupid abandoned factory.

She'd mentioned that it was because of Nyla, but in truth places like that made her think of a few things from her past. Things she'd rather forget about, not that it was possible. Though she had been serious about Nyla, if they had to climb up and down long steep ladders, the Arka might not be able to follow.

After hesitating for a moment, she walked over to a Black Market trader, waving him over before she could change her mind.

"'Ello li'l lass. Wha can I do fer ya?"

"I was told that if I ever wanted to get a hold of someone, I just needed to mention his name and he'd find me."

"Oh? Who iz it?"

"Tell Drayden that Valeria is looking for him and will meet him near the info dealers."

The trader chuckled, "Will do, lass. Will do."

Valeria hesitated for a moment before she walked away, heading back toward where she'd left Nyla. If the trader did it, he'd do it. If not, well she'd burn that bridge when she got to it. For now, she'd attempt to get more information out of the dealers if they'd let her.

She and Nyla made two other stops while walking toward the dealers, deciding to see if there was anything of interest in the Market Stalls. A few items seemed to be of interest for her, yet she wasn't willing to pay the price the guy asked, knowing he had probably stolen it from some other unfortunate soul. If her knowledge of markings was correct, that is.

For a few of the Underworld selections, there were groups that banded together and worked well with each other. A couple were thieves who teamed up with merchants, as well as smugglers who worked with assassins. Two of those branches had markings that symbolized they worked together, and the man who was selling at this current stall bore a mark of the Thief/Merchant type.

Shaking her head on the deal, Valeria walked away and finally figured she'd head for the Information Dealers, though before she could get to the dealers' space a voice stopped her.

"Ya know, this is much sooner than I thought you'd need me."

Turning to look at the side, Valeria spied Drayden lounging on one of the many couches spaced around the cavern. His legs were sprawled in front of him and he held a metal tankard in his hand, though from the smell Valeria knew it wasn't alcoholic.

Placing her hands on her hips, Valeria tilted her head, "Is that a problem?"

The silver haired man laughed and set down his drink before he got to his feet and walked over until he stood right in front of her, having to bend down a little so he could look in her eyes, "Nah, I've been bored anyway."

It took a little bit of effort, but she didn't back away from him and looked him in the eyes as well. "I need to get out of the city, but I can't go out via the port or the main entrance. Oh, and I refuse to leave via the abandoned factory."

He grinned, "Purely because of your pooch, correct?"

"Purely. Now get out of my face."

His laugh echoed around them, but he did stand to his normal slouched height, tilting his head to the side in thought, "I might know a way. Any particular direction you're heading?"

"East, over land, not by sea."

Drayden raised a brow, though she only saw it due to his bangs hanging to the side. "The desert? Not the best place right now, sandstorms are due any time now."

"Doesn't matter, I only need you to get me out of the city."

Drayden held out his hand, motioning for her to begin walking. She did, Nyla right at her heel, and the Smuggler on her right. "Right-o. I can get you out, but first I have a question."

"Yeah?"

"You know Dist the Reaper, right?"

Valeria hesitated, not sure whether or not she should answer, and Drayden seemed to take her silence as yes.

"You know, it's not that hard of a stretch. I did see what happened on the ferry. Plus, I can get more information here than you can. I was asking purely because I wanted to be polite. Only reason I asked was there's a job that someone needs done. Yet no one would be able to accomplish it unless they know the Reaper, how his mind works."

"If you think I know how his mind works, you're insane."

He waved his hand in front of his face, "Tomato, tomato. You know him, right?"

Valeria sighed, "Yeah…"

"Good, let's go talk to the dealers. You accept the job, I'll get some info that you want."

It was Valeria's turn to raise an eyebrow, not trusting him once again, "You the one who asked for the job?"

Drayden chuckled, "I dunno why you're so cautious against me, your pooch has yet to growl, even though I stood right in front of your face. Though to answer your question, no. It wasn't me. It was the Limiter who requested this."

Valeria stopped and looked at Drayden, surprise on her face, "The Limiter is looking into Dist's idiocy?"

The silver haired man shrugged, "Dunno, just heard that she needed someone else who could actually access the information to get it for her. She's apparently willing to pay well. Not to mention it'll get you in her good graces, opening more doors."

Valeria frowned at his choice of words, "You talked to Noir, didn't you?"

"The thief came to me last night and we had a wondrous talk, haven't had a chance to catch up with her for a long time. Fun gal, interesting way of thinking. Talked about you when I mentioned I had been saved on the ferry. If I know that thief at all, and I believe I do after running into her over the years on jobs, she cares for ya. And due to that, she requested of me to help ya out on occasion. Which includes making sure the Underworld doesn't swallow ya whole."

"So Noir talked you into making me a Piece instead of a Known?"

Drayden grinned, "Yup. Let's get you a name for yourself."

He led the way to the Info dealers, and instead of being brushed aside like she had the day before, the dealers actually made an effort to help him. Within the next twenty minutes, Valeria stood off to the side holding a fonic disc that she apparently needed to insert into a machine that Dist had used. There were some instructions for her as well, though she decided to ignore them for now. She'd need to read them when she got to the location anyway. Now she was waiting for Drayden to get done talking with a few of the dealers before he'd get her out of the city, though she still had no clue how he was planning on doing that.

Nyla was once again lying down, not that Valeria blamed her, since before they even got to Chesedonia, they'd had a rough time. Maybe it hadn't been the brightest idea to travel around Malkuth with just the two of them. They'd run into quite a few interesting creatures that seemed to believe it'd be a good idea to attack the Arka and her owner. On many occasions Valeria had had to try and fix Nyla since she tended to jump into fights, though she'd thought the Arka would have learned by now that doing so wasn't the best idea. The first trip Valeria took Nyla with her to Daath came to mind.

Nyla had barely begun to grow from being a small pup, but she hadn't wanted to leave Valeria's side. It came with being an Arka, Valeria supposed. For most Arka, once they bonded with a particular human, they wouldn't bond with another. And Valeria had been given Nyla pretty early in her pup stage, so they bonded pretty quick. But it was during a trip to Daath, when Nyla was smaller and unable to carry Valeria, that they'd come upon a rather unforgiving creature that seemed to believe the two of them were encroaching on it's territory.

Both of them had tried to defeat the thing, but it kept throwing Valeria to the side every time she tried to cast while Nyla wasn't much of a threat to it yet, not having the strength in her forepaws to actually do a lot of damage. In fact, had it not been for Sync showing up, Valeria had a feeling that both she and her Arka would've been killed. But even with the God-General helping out, Valeria had been severely injured and Nyla had lost part of her right ear and gained a scar across her eye. Luckily the eye remained intact, though.

And after all they'd just gotten into recently, they now had to go into the desert. Someone clearly wasn't smiling on them.

Sighing, Valeria sat down next to the Arka, leaning against her while waiting for Drayden to finish up. Luckily it didn't take too much longer, and he came walking over to her with a small stack of papers.

"Here ya go. Some, not all, of the information you'd been looking for. Though why you'd want some of this stuff, I have no clue."

Valeria stood, nudging Nyla with her foot. The Arka grumbled but stood moments later. "Thanks, though it's none of your business what I do with this information."

Drayden laughed, "Sure, sure, now I suppose you'll be wanting to catch up with your group?"

"How did you…?"

"Come now, it's the Underworld, things get reported all the time. A couple people saw a group including that Colonel friend of yours and the red head going into the abandoned factory. Knowing what I know about that place, they'll likely be getting out of it right as I get you out of the city. You and the Arka are cool with water, right?"

"Yeah… Why?"

"Oh, no reason."


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:**

**RK: Sorry this chapter took so long! There were many factors that made it be such a later update than we would've liked. Most important reason? Mara. This is how that conversation went:**

_RK: *runs to Mara in a panic* Mara! Why did you delete that fight scene from my computer?_  
_ Mara: I didn't like it. Besides, I kept forgetting a few things..._  
_ RK: Well would you work on it?_  
_ Mara: Nope._  
_ RK: Mara..._  
_ Mara: I'll get to it when I get to it._  
_ RK: But you just deleted it! We had this planned out, why would you delete it?!_  
_ Mara: Just because... *walks away*_  
_ RK: *struggles not to choke Mara*_

**So yeah, the original scene that we had done was different than how it turned out in this chapter, but you wanna know what? We like this version better. Mara actually put forth a lot of effort and made it flow better and added stuff we had neglected the first time.**

**Mara: *sighs* yeah yeah, anyway, per usual, neither myself nor RK owns the rights of Tales of the Abyss, we only own our OCs, Valeria, Drayden and whoever else shows up later, as well as any original plot we have added.**

**RK: We also must thank our Beta IHaveNoIdea8 for giving us ideas/tips for a few things within this chapter and for putting up with our constant annoyances.**

**Mara: Your constant annoyances... We would also appreciate it if you would review and tell us what you liked, or even disliked and what you think we should work on.**

**RK: Or even play the quote game! Select a quote (preferably one that isn't canon) and tell us why you like this quote. It's fun! I do it a lot when I review. Anyway, sorry for the long author's note, hope you enjoy our chapter!**

* * *

Valeria growled under her breath. She wondered, not for the first time since Drayden said his goodbyes, why she agreed to go with him. That stupid Smuggler had led her and the Arka to a back-end area in Baticul and told her to stand at a specific place. Right before he said goodbye he explained that the way he was sending them was one of the few ways to get barrels of ingredients that weren't very legal, out of the city without causing too much suspicion. He then muttered that normally another smuggler would be waiting for the delivery and would then meet up with the person who smuggled it out for an exchange, but since this was a live event, no other person was needed.

Needless to say, Valeria had been confused. The silver haired man then told her to take a breath and said goodbye, then pulled a lever that she hadn't seen and the next thing Valeria knew, both she and Nyla were spiraling down a water shoot that somehow ended up outside the city and near the ocean under an overhang that shielded their sight of the outside.

Which was where she and Nyla were currently located, both soaked, mostly due to the fact that Valeria hadn't been expecting to be dropped into water.

"When I get my hands on that stupid, idiotic jerk! Grrahhhh!"

Nyla snorted and padded over to her, rubbing her fur along Valeria's face.

"Nyla! Stop! Okay I get it, give me a second!"

Closing her eyes, Valeria focused her fonons and pushed them toward the fonons that made up the water covering both her and Nyla. This was a trick she'd figured out due to her unusual ability to control the fourth fonon. Pushing slightly, a fonic glyph appeared under her feet and then disappeared, pulling the water from both her and Nyla and dissipating it into the air. The air then turned thick with moisture, even more moisture than she'd thought she'd feel, making her scowl and walk out from under the overhang, into the rain.

"So I just made us dry, only to run around in the rain, great…" Valeria shook her head, "Whatever, now we just need to find the others."

Hopping on Nyla, the two took off at a leisurely pace, attempting to use Nyla's sense of smell to locate the others, but with the rain being as heavy as it was, it was getting increasingly difficult to do so. About two hours or so later, Nyla made a noise, slowing down to a sedate walk. The Arka lifted her head to the air a few more times before padding to a tree and sitting down. Valeria didn't really question the Arka; she tended to do things her own way, just like her master.

While the Arka lay down, Valeria jumped up from her back and onto the nearest tree, climbing up a few limbs before grabbing a limb from a different tree. From there she crossed a couple of different trees, climbing even higher so she was a decent amount of trees away from Nyla and toward the top, thus allowing more rain to fall onto her. The water seeped into her, through her clothes and soothing the emotions boiling within her that she felt about what was to come. She needed to get as much water as she could before they arrived in the desert, it would be good for her.

A noise down below alerted her to people, though whether they were friendly or not was unclear. Dropping down a few branches, Valeria heard more splashing, indicating footsteps. As she dropped down to the lowest branch, she heard speaking.

"Asch the Bloody…he looked just like Luke."

Hearing the Fon Master Guardian's comment let the tension she'd been building in her shoulders release, but it also made her frown. They had run into Asch? She could've sworn that they had been trying to avoid a run in with the God Generals so it made her wonder what happened.

The comment then brought something else to mind, something that had been bugging Valeria for a while. Apparently it hadn't been her imagination that Luke had seemed familiar, and now that she'd manage to get a decent amount of rest, which now allowed her to think and remember clearly, she finally realized why. Yeah, Asch and Luke looked almost exactly alike, and Luke's last name was Fabre. The pieces in her brain jumped up and down like happy children before quickly falling into place, finally able to process clearly now that she'd gotten rest. Now that she thought about it, it had definitely been too long without a good amount of rest, she was surprised she'd managed to last that long without getting herself and Nyla killed.

Shaking her head, Valeria dropped completely to the ground, leaning back against the tree while she awaited the arrival of those walking towards her.

"A long lost brother, maybe? I've never heard anything like that, but... Natalia, do you know anything about it?" Valeria heard Guy ask.

Who was Natalia? Valeria didn't remember hearing that name while with the group earlier on, maybe it was a nickname? That question was answered when a new voice that Valeria hadn't heard spoke, her voice offering no other solution, "No, Duke Fabre only has one son."

Jade spoke up then, his voice calm where the others had seemed confused. "There's no point in thinking about it with no information to go on. Asking Asch directly would be the simplest route, but we have other priorities right now. Isn't that right?"

"Yeah. I'm worried about Asch, but for now, we have to find Ion," Anise agreed.

Valeria heard the new voice, this Natalia person, speak up right as the group of people were walking into her line of sight, the people who were talking leading the way while Luke and Tear seemed to be walking back a bit, "We certainly do. And since it seems Asch is the one who has abducted Ion, perhaps we can get our question answered at the same time."

Valeria tilted her head to the side as she eyed the new person that was a part of the group. Golden hair, cut short, and held in place by an elegant, yet simple brown headband. She appeared to be around the same height as Luke, and like the noble, seemed to have finely crafted clothing, very elegant and practically screaming that she was a noble with a lot of money. If Valeria tilted her head a bit further she noticed that the girl also had a bow with arrows strapped to her back.

Why had they picked up another bimbo noble who likely wouldn't be able to help much?

It was clear that Jade had noticed her, though the damned jerk kept his mouth shut, allowing the others to take heed of her first. The new girl, Natalia was the only one to take action the moment she noticed Valeria, grabbing her bow from where it was situated on her back and knocking an arrow to it. To Valeria, who had trained against a couple of Jade's archers, it was clear that the girl wasn't aiming directly at her, but anyone else who wasn't trained to notice how an archer aimed would believe the girl was truly aiming at them.

"Stay where you are!"

Valeria snorted, leaning her head back against the tree. "Yeah, like I was even the one moving…"

The girl gasped, "What was that?"

Guy, ever the one to placate someone, held up his hands and tried to step in front of the girl, "Natalia, you don't have to do that…"

Finally that bastard chuckled, alerting to the others that he found this all amusing, "I wondered when you'd show up Valeria, where is Nyla?"

Natalia frowned slightly, relaxing from her archery stance and looked from Jade to Guy and back, "Who is this?"

Without even bothering to look back at the group but still seeing them out of the corner of her eyes, Valeria sighed, "Isn't it common courtesy to introduce yourself first before asking for someone else's name, girlie?"

Natalia gasped again, her look of shock changing into one of anger, her posture shifting to place her hands on her hips, an amusing feat since she still clutched her bow in her hand, "You shouldn't speak to me in such a vulgar manner!"

Guy once again moved to stand between the two girls, making sure to block their lines of sight, "Natalia, remember, you told us to treat you like we would anyone else. That also includes how strangers would speak to you ask well…"

Though Valeria couldn't clearly see the golden haired girl, she imagined the girl was looking away from Guy, "You're right Guy, I'm sorry."

Valeria said nothing about that, and instead looked at the rest of the group. Luke looked like he was trying to refrain from laughing while Anise had a facial expression that clearly stated she was close to smacking Natalia, a move that Valeria agreed with wholeheartedly.

Guy moved out of the way once it was clear the obnoxious girl wasn't going to try anything and Natalia attempted a smile, "My apologies, my name is Natalia, who might you be?"

"…Valeria." Now that that was out of the way, the blonde fonist wanted to forget about it, and turned to look at Jade, "What's this about Asch?"

Jade raised an eyebrow at her question, but looked at Guy instead of commenting. "Guy, explain."

"Seriously?" The blond swordsman sighed and scratched his head, "After picking up Natalia in the factory and making it through the whole thing, and battling a giant arachnid right before the exit, we climbed down the ladder leading to the outside. Unfortunately for us the God Generals had stationed the Tartarus where the escape port was and found us as we'd exited."

Anise nodded, "Yeah, and Sync was there with Ion as well, since he had been the one to take Ion from those stupid Circus Freaks. We think they headed east of the factory."

Valeria tilted her head, looking eastward, "Huh, that leads toward the Oasis, right?"

Guy nodded, "Yeah, that's what we thought. Have you been there before?"

Valeria nodded absentmindedly, "Not exactly, we never really made it that far, but one of the caravans we ran into once mentioned where it was. I think I know where it is. But before that… C'mon, Nyla is up ahead."

Valeria moved onward before the others could question her, though she did hear Natalia asking who Nyla was. As the group came upon where the Arka was camped at, Valeria motioned toward Jade to come with her as she walked over to Nyla and crouched down. As he walked to her she shoved the Arka onto her other side so she could dig into the bag hanging on her left side. Digging through the bag, Valeria pulled out a cube-like object and stood next to Jade as she pressed the side of it. Slowly the cube began to emit a soft glow as it split apart. A screen formed above it, allowing Valeria to push a few buttons and slowly items began forming from the opening of the cube.

"I didn't know you had a Wing Pack, Valeria."

At Jade's comment, Natalia came over and peered at the cube with a small frown, "I'm not entirely familiar with a Wing Pack, what is it?"

"It's a very convenient type of fon tech device that allows for the storage of a large number of items inside, regardless of their size or weight, without affecting the Wing Pack's weight! If there's something that we don't need to keep on us at all times but we would like to keep we usually store it in a Wing Pack," Guy interjected, his voice eager like a young child.

While Guy was explaining, Valeria was grabbing the few items that she'd bought for the others and handed them off to Jade. "Normally people keep a select number of things on themselves, such as a handful of gels, a life bottle or two, and a handful of gald but for those who can afford a Wing Pack it's a very useful tool to have around. I personally make Nyla carry it, along with some spare items that I might need, but can't fit into my thigh pouch."

Anise nodded, "Yeah, Wing Packs are expensive, we only have one because of Jade, and usually we let either him or Guy carry it for us."

"I got one as a gift a few years ago, mostly due to the fact that I always used to sneak out of town, and the person who gave it to me mentioned that he'd rather me be prepared if I end up stuck somewhere. Jade, pass those out, would ya?" Valeria commented, signaling the couple of water bottles that she'd extracted. She'd gotten one for each of the people that she knew was coming, knowing that even if they had their own water bottle, it likely wouldn't be enough. She'd also gotten some more food, which she was currently splitting between her own Wing Pack and the one in Jade's hand.

"Huh, and here I thought you'd just be annoying. You're actually useful."

Valeria turned to glare at Luke, but she bit her tongue, she'd dealt with annoying jerks like Luke before and getting worked up wouldn't be in her favor. Instead she handed Jade back his Wing Pack before placing her own back in Nyla's bag. "C'mon, let's get a move on before it gets dark."

* * *

Their group walked continuously until the sky darkened into night and decided they should make camp. Mieu lit the fire once Guy had gathered some wood. Luke and Tear had gone out to fetch dinner and had come back with a small boar, which they roasted on the fire. Valeria glanced at it but turned away when one of the others tried to hand her some, instead walking over and curling up next to Nyla, nibbling on an apple she'd pulled from the Arka's bag. The moment she leaned against the Arka, Nyla growled low, almost inaudible. At first Valeria worried she did something to upset her, but then realized that the area around them had grown a little too silent. She tensed, eyes flicking over to the trees to the right.

"My! This is good!"

Guy smiled at Natalia, "Thanks, amazing what a few herbs can do, huh? I hadn't thought to replenish that while in Baticul so we should really thank Valeria."

"Yes Valeria, that was rather nice of you."

The blonde female blinked, coming back to the conversation and looked over, scowling, "From you, Jade, that doesn't seem like a compliment."

Out of the corner of her eye, Valeria noticed Natalia walking toward her, as though to speak with her. But before the girl reached her, Valeria rose into a crouch and whirled around, hurling her half eaten apple out into the trees. Within seconds a shout was heard as the apple made contact with someone, and moments after the foliage exploded outward as a group of men burst into the clearing Jade had chosen for the group that night.

Valeria rose from her crouch and motioned off to her right, "Nyla, spread!"

The Arka growled her conformation, moving off to the side while the rest of the group quickly readied their weapons. Valeria spared the group one look before she quickly got into the fight; unsheathing two knives from her pouch, quickly looking around to see how many people were truly attacking them. She even admitted silently to herself that if it hadn't been for Nyla, she wouldn't have been as prepared for this attack as she was. The others hadn't been ready, with Luke a few feet from his weapon and the girls relaxing, not entirely expecting the attack.

Taking a breath, Valeria leapt forward, allowing her body to become limber so she could move easily. It wasn't her first time having to deal with attacks out of the blue, especially from bandits. Though even for being with a group, the number of bandits currently attacking the group was unnerving. If her count was correct, there were a total of seven of them, not including the one who'd been hit by the apple, and Valeria prayed that the apple had managed to knock him out, though that was a little unlikely since her strength wasn't the greatest.

Most of the bandits had swords or a club, though one of them did have an axe. Making a mental note of that, Valeria chose a different target, knowing that the last time she'd come into contact with an axe wielding bandit, it didn't end entirely well, even if she did come out on top. Her main goal was to try and find the bandit leader, usually the person who held the best forged weapon of the group or had something of importance on their person.

The first of the bandits came at her, his sword arcing through the air towards her neck. Quickly side stepping out of the way and whirling around to the man's backside, Valeria drove her knife through the tendons on the man's leg, severing them and causing the man to collapse to the ground.

Without wasting a second, Valeria decided to leave the man for Guy, noticing the blond swordsman's approach. The rest of the bandits had split and each went after someone else in the group, leaving a knife wielding female for Valeria to deal with - the only apparent female of the group.

The girl held two slightly longer blades than Valeria's, leaving Valeria at a slight disadvantage. Still, she knew she had to quickly take this girl down and help out some of the others. According to Jade, Luke was still new to the idea of fighting humans and Valeria had no clue how Natalia would take to it, she seemed like the type to back down from a human fight.

The bandit rushed at her, driving her blade towards Valeria's side, her thrust swift. The move was unexpected, leaving Valeria to try and dodge. Getting mostly out of the way, the blonde fonist felt a warm pain shoot across her side, the bandit's blade grazing her and parting the first couple layers of skin. Gritting her teeth, Valeria parried the next strike with her own knife, allowing herself to become enveloped in combat as her pain slowly dwindled away thanks to the adrenaline.

The two knife wielders clashed again, both knives held against each other, Valeria grit her teeth, swinging around to lash a kick with her right leg into the girl's side. The bandit groaned and crumpled for a moment before righting herself to dodge Valeria's next strike, meeting one blade and driving the other towards Valeria's left leg. The blade sliced deeply into her leg, though she barely felt it as she kneed the girl's face.

The bandit growled now, her actions getting haphazard and erratic. Valeria grinned, knowing that the moment the girl's actions became as such, this battle was already hers. Without even bothering to dodge the next swipe to her left arm, Valeria whirled about, coming out of the bandit's line of sight and to the girl's left. Without wasting another moment, Valeria jabbed both of her blades into the girl, one sinking into the girl's midsection while the other was thrust into her throat.

Blood gushed from both wounds, splattering against Valeria when she moved to the side, blood spurted from the bandit's mouth, and she crumpled quickly to the ground, her breath coming in heavy pants, then not at all.

Valeria spared the corpse one last look before moving on, locking her gaze on a man who'd just run out of the trees, holding his hand to the bump on his forehead. His other hand held a sword, gold glinting from the handle. So he was the leader, was he?

The moment she attempted to go for the leader, Valeria felt a sudden shift in the fourth fonons around her, pulling them together and driving them against one another to form an attack. Dodging to the side to avoid the sudden onslaught of water from a Splash arte, Valeria drew another set of blades from her thigh pouch, coming up behind the collapsed bandit leader and dragging him up into a hold, blade held against his neck before he was able to counter. He struggled for just a moment until felt the blade slicing into the first few layers of skin, at which point the man held up his hands in defeat and dropped his blade.

With the fight over, the adrenaline that had been coursing through her veins slowly began to wear off, alerting her to more injuries than she'd thought. Taking count she realized she had two cuts to her side, multiple on her left arm, and a final wound that was the deepest on her left leg.

Keeping her hold on the bandit in her grasp, Valeria glanced around to see what the rest of the battle's outcome was. Near the other side of the clearing Jade was rising from a casting position, meaning he was the one who'd cast the Splash moments ago. Next to him was Luke, holding his blade to the bandit on the ground who looked to be unconscious. Opposite of them was Anise, holding her staff in tight fingers as her puppet held down another of the bandits. So she was a puppeteer, was she?

Next to the Guardian was Natalia, bow held in tightened fists and a number of arrows imbedded in the ground around both the bandit held down by the Guardian but also near the one being held down by Tear who was close to the two other females with her own knives held against the throat of the bandit she'd taken on. Guy had apparently moved on from the bandit Valeria had originally dropped and had taken on the man who'd held the axe. Said axe was now on the ground a few feet away from the bandit who was on his knees with Guy's sword held carefully against the man's back. Nyla had her paw on top of the last of the bandits, though whether or not that bandit was alive or not remained to be seen. The female's corpse was where Valeria had left it and she still held her other blades to the neck of the man in front of her. All eight accounted for.

"Well Jade, what should we do?" Valeria called.

"What do you mean, what should we do?" Luke questioned, his voice rough as if worried what the answer would be. Even Natalia looked confused.

"What she means is, are we allowing them to remain alive or not," Jade sighed.

Natalia gasped, the meaning finally clear, "Why?! Do we have to kill them? Couldn't we just leave them unconscious?"

None of the others looked entirely comfortable with the thought, yet they didn't disagree with what Valeria was insinuating. It looked like Jade was about to say something to the noble when Valeria chose that moment to speak up. "Even if we left them unconscious, they would likely come after us. They're bandits, Natalia; you really think they had any intention to leave us alive and only steal our stuff? Besides, I killed one of their own; they'll definitely be gunning for me."

"Enough, Valeria. Not everyone has had to deal with the same situations as you."

Valeria narrowed her eyes at Jade, but then her gaze turned to Natalia. The girl looked uneasy, like she didn't want to have to deal the final blow to anyone. Valeria already knew Luke was sheltered, that much was clear from most of the conversations she'd been around for. Natalia seemed to know Luke and Valeria doubted just anyone would be allowed to see the Fabre if he had been secluded inside his mansion for years. The girl wore such fancy clothes and, Valeria had noticed, practiced a specific type of archery that was very uncommon for those who weren't very high in the noble line of Kimlasca to learn.

After realizing that, she couldn't help it, Valeria started laughing, her laughter rising and almost forcing her to bend over; the only thing stopping her was the fact that she had the bandit leader in front of her. "Oh Yulia, this is hilarious! How did we get saddled with the Kimlascan Princess?"

Jade adjusted his glasses, sighing as he stepped up to the soldier Luke had pinned down, "Valeria, just end it, no need to make it more awkward for everyone."

The moment Jade said that, Natalia, who had looked mad the moment Valeria had started laughing at her, gasped once more, her expression turning to one of shock. It looked as though the girl wanted to say something, but Valeria took that moment to slide her blade across the neck of the bandit she held in her grasp, calmly watching as the man fell to his knees and clutched his oozing throat. Looking back up, Valeria noted the very slight hesitation in those who stood above their own opponents, though Guy and Tear, along with Jade, quickly ended the lives of the men in front of them. As Valeria walked calmly to the bandit she'd wounded earlier, she motioned to Nyla, telling the Arka to finish off the bandit Anise still held down, seeing the slight hesitation in the young girl. As the Arka complied, Valeria knelt down next to the man, whose legs had been sliced, watching in detached amusement as he attempted to crawl away. Before he could get any further though, she slid her blade through his back and into his heart. That done, Valeria made her way to the female's corpse and retrieved the two knives she'd left in the body, making a mental note to inscribe a fonic glyph on each blade. After retrieving her blades, she looked up and noticed that the others appeared to be done with their opponents and had begun to move about.

Natalia and Luke were both standing off to the side, looking like they didn't want to be near the area while Guy and Nyla had begun to drag the bodies away from the campsite. Tear was gathering her own knives from the ground around them and Jade was quietly talking with Anise. Valeria tilted her head at the two nobles before beginning to help Guy and Nyla with the rest of the bodies, pulling them far enough away from the group's campsite so as to not attract monsters.

A little bit later, after all the clean-up was done, everyone once again sat down and began to eat the warmed up food once again, though the chatter that had been there before was now gone, and Valeria noted that both Natalia and Luke were making a point to look away from her. Shrugging, Valeria dug out all of the blades within her pouch as well as a carving tool, then she began the process of slowly and carefully carving symbols into each of the knives, near the juncture where the blade met the hilt. Each one took a long time, and by the time she was done with all of the blades she'd put in the thigh pouch, the night had truly fallen and most of the group had gone to sleep.

"What were you doing?"

Valeria looked over at the Melodist who stood near her, surprised that someone had actually wanted to speak with her. Most of the time, people didn't have the same way of looking at things as Valeria did, so it tended to cause them to distance themselves. Of course, now that Valeria recalled, Tear was a soldier who likely had to do things like this many times before.

"Ah, err… Half of the time that I use my knives I tend to throw them at people, but if I do that without being careful I tend to lose the knives in my possession. Seeing as I made sure to get some nice blades while in Baticul, I don't want to lose them, so I inscribe fonic glyphs on each of my blades that correspond with a similar glyph on my thigh pouch. That way, if I miss my target or whenever I tap one of the blades to the pouch itself, they get transported back and I don't lose them," Valeria explained as the Melodist sat down next to her, peering at the blades.

Tear blinked as she peered closer at both items and tilted her head. "Hmm, I never thought about that. Most of the time I have to make sure to grab my own before we move on, and since I'm with a larger group now, it gets difficult to do sometimes…"

Valeria hesitated, "Well… If you want, I could inscribe a glyph on your blades and their pouch?"

Tear leaned back, slight shock on her face, "That would be very useful, are you sure you're willing to do that?"

Before she could refuse anything, she held up her hand to the Melodist, "Just give me your blades and pouch; I'll have them back to you soon. Nyla and I will take the first watch, get some sleep."

Tear frowned, "But I was supposed to take the first watch."

Valeria sighed, "I'll wake you for the second, just go to bed."

Tear stood, "Thank you."

Nodding slightly, Valeria looked down at the pouch Tear had handed her and flipped it around to see where the best place to inscribe a glyph was.

* * *

"You know, that was very kind of you. I hadn't thought you'd do something like that, especially when you hadn't been thrilled to join the group."

Valeria glared at Jade over the small stream that they had stopped at the following day. Tear had been shocked when she was woken up by Jade that morning. Valeria had let the girl sleep during the entire night, only waking Jade up for the third shift since he had been the one who was supposed to be doing it. The blonde had then made sure to walk away from Tear, after setting down the completed pouch and knives, before the girl could complain. In truth, Valeria just hadn't felt comfortable letting someone other than Jade watch her back while she slept out in the open.

When she didn't say anything, Jade sighed and walked away. What had he wanted her to say? In all likelihood he already knew the reason for her actions; in fact, the knives were just something to occupy her time through the night while Nyla had slept until she was allowed to wake Jade up. If it hadn't been for the blades, she likely would have gone crazy with the silence around them. Well, other than a few of the group's snoring.

The rest of the day passed by quickly, with half of the group calmly walking and the other making a very good effort to ignore Valeria, luckily the only fights that day were monsters who hadn't been smart enough to avoid attacking humans. It wasn't long before they all began to feel the rise in temperature, pausing at yet another water source to refill their mostly full water bottles. While they were stopped for their current break, Valeria took the moment while everyone's backs were turned to change clothes, throwing on the tank top she'd purchased and slipping off the arm bands connected to her arms, now tying them to the belt she'd stolen from Jade and taking off the other two. She kept the tabard hanging from her waist though, needing to keep comforted by the cloth as she struggled not to run away from the group.

It took them awhile to get into the desert, for which Valeria was grateful. When they finally did enter the desert, Valeria made sure to stay near Nyla even more than before, tending to ride on the Arka more than she'd done the previous day, while she still had been comfortable walking. Luckily, they managed to keep away from most of the bandits that roamed the desert, though monsters still came at them from all sorts of directions. One by one, Valeria threw all types of knives at the monsters, staying close to Jade, who had fallen back to be the main caster during most cases of monster attacks. It seemed he liked to keep an eye on her while Nyla was helping defeat the monsters and on multiple times reminded her to drink more water.

By the time they were in the middle of their third day in the desert, Valeria was seriously tempted to collapse to the ground and sleep for weeks. Most of her water was used up, due to her need to keep her strength up. It also didn't help that she was still having trouble sleeping a lot around the group she's with. Nyla didn't seem to be having much trouble, other than the occasional thirst that would touch the Arka as well.

Currently they were stopped for the night, the group having found a decent spot where a shallow sand dune cliff was able to shelter them. If Jade was correct, they would reach the Oasis by sundown the following day. It was something Valeria was really looking forward to, she was getting sick of not having enough water so she could feel well.

At the moment, the rest of the group was eating some sort of meat Guy had gotten from a monster they'd killed earlier. Once more someone tried to offer some of it to her, but she shook her head. She'd just gotten her own food out when someone spoke up.

"I've been wondering this ever since we entered the desert, but why do you suddenly seem weaker, Valeria?"

"Yeah, Anise is right; you've become a burden on us!"

Jade sighed at Luke's arrogance, "While I want to agree with you, Luke, it's not entirely her fault."

Valeria swallowed the piece of pineapple she'd been eating and leaned her head to the side, resting it against Nyla, "I'll try and explain this as easy as I can. There's something you don't know about my fighting style, I'm actually a fonist as well. But not a normal type of fonist, well, there isn't really a normal type, but… Anyway, there are fonists like Anise and Jade who can use multiple fonon types for their attacks, like the first fonon coupled with the third and so on. Not that Jade is normal anyway, he's a monster."

"Valeria, I'm shocked to hear you say such a thing!"

"Moving on, there are also other types of fonists who can only use one type of fonon. Those who specialize in a single type of fonon have a bit of an edge with that fonon more so than anyone who uses two or more types. Our attacks tend to be a little stronger, not by much, but enough to make it noticeable, especially when around the fonon in its true form. I'm a fourth fonist; therefore I'm stronger in an area with an abundance of water. But while I'm strong in an area with a lot of water, places without water make me weaker."

Tear nodded, "Which is why you've been getting weaker and weaker the longer we're in the desert?"

"Yeah, like all fonists, I feel the fonons in the air, sense them and then help manipulate them. But when there isn't a whole lot of fonons of my type in the area, I actively try and seek them out, sending my senses further and further away and when I don't find them, it backlashes and makes me tired. It's kinda like how when you're looking for something and you squint your eyes to try and focus and see further, only if you squint for too long, it begins to hurt your eyes. Same concept, only with a mental sensing taking place and it isn't something you can easily turn off or lessen, it's active all the time."

Anise moved closer to them now, actually interested in learning about this, "I never really thought of that, since I've been using multiple types of fonons for my attacks. So since you're a fourth fonist, what kind of things are you able to do? Is it easy to draw the fonons to you when they're around?"

Valeria took a moment to mull over her answers, eating another piece of her pineapple, "Well, since I'm not a multi-type fonist, I can't really say it's easier for me to pull the fonons to me but I have heard from a couple of my brother's men that deal with fourth fonons as well as a couple others and they say that I tend to have an easier time using fonic artes with the fourth fonon than them. As for what I can do, I can pull the fonons from others; I've managed to toy around with that skill and can make someone dry by pulling the fonons from them and dispersing it into the air. Also, and this is harder, if I pour water on a person's wound, I can use that water to heal them, but it takes a lot of energy from me. I get the feeling that if I keep toying with that one it'll get easier, but neither Nyla nor I were willing to injure ourselves if there was a chance I wouldn't be able to heal it. Which is one of the reasons I'm glad we have seventh fonists in this group. They specialize in healing fonic artes, and it means I don't have to over-stress my fonslots to try and heal anyone."

Natalia spoke up just then, "Tear, Anise, we still have some meat left over, would you like some more?"

Anise jumped up, "Sure!"

Tear looked at Valeria, "Did you want some? I noticed you haven't been eating any of the food we've caught, are you eating enough?"

Valeria blinked, shocked by the question, "Ah, yeah… I've been eating enough. Sorry for the confusion, but I eat my own meals."

Anise came back, holding a plate for herself and Tear. "Why's that?"

"I'm a vegetarian, I can't eat meat."

"Seriously?!"

Valeria sighed and looked at Luke, "Yeah, seriously. It's never really a good thing when I eat meat, it tends to come right back out the way it came," Valeria grinned, "Jade found that out the hard way."

"The Colonel did?"

"Yep, Anise, he did."

"Valeria, I would appreciate it if you wouldn't tell them this story."

Valeria took a long look at Jade before looking back at the sudden audience she had. On one hand, she wasn't sure she was willing to allow these people to glimpse any part of her past, a past she still seemed to be running from. On the other hand, it was something that would help them help her tease Jade later on, even if it was in passing further on down the road.

Grinning, she shook her head, "Sorry, Jade, but it's funny. So the first time I met Jade, and not just in passing, I was in a hospital bed. I wouldn't speak to any of the nurses and freaked out a lot when the doctors came into the room. The only time I didn't freak out was when Jade was around, though I kind of think that's 'cause I lost my mind, who calms down around him, huh? Anyway, I wouldn't eat anything they brought me, since they only had meat and foods I couldn't eat. So around the fourth day that I refused to eat, since Jade was the only one who I'd allow nearby without flipping out, he walked over to me and attempted to shove food down my throat. Needless to say, it backfired on him and I ended up vomiting all over his shoes. He was pissed, or as pissed as Jade can get when he has no emotions."

To her surprise, Jade actually chuckled, "It certainly wasn't an ideal situation, but I suppose I had it coming. Though I must say, that jab about having no emotions was a little rude, Valeria."

Anise was looking at Jade now, surprise on her face, "You tried force feeding her?"

"Why would you do that?" Tear asked, looking almost annoyed.

Guy laughed softly. "It usually doesn't end up well, no matter who you feed. I remember one time when Luke was young—"

"Don't say another word, Guy!" Luke interjected.

Valeria looked at Luke, tilting her head and wondering why he would be so defensive of something that happened when he was younger. With that little outburst, the group apparently decided that it was time for them to sleep. Like normal, Tear took first watch, occasionally chatting with Valeria, who once again refused to sleep while someone she didn't completely know was on watch. By the time it was Jade's turn for watch, she was beyond tired, and had actually been considering falling asleep while Guy was taking his turn.

She hadn't, but with how badly the heat had been making her feel, it was a serious surprise that she was able to stay awake. In fact, she had a feeling that Guy had noticed this and had cut his watch short, waking Jade up early and allowing her a little bit more rest than she usually got.

Whatever the case, Valeria was _really_ looking forward to getting into the water at the Oasis. In fact, she might've dreamed about it the night before, but that's neither here nor there.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N:**

**Mara: So! Today is RK's birthday, and seeing as it's her birthday, I decided that I needed to get her a present, which I'm going to give to you! So here it is, after such a long time! Chapter 6!**

**Now, I apologize for the long wait, RK had massive writer's block and took forever for her part of the chapter, but I finally kicked her butt in gear and we finished it in time for today.**

**As usual, neither myself nor RK owns Abyss, only our original characters and any side plot we decided to create for our amusement.**

**We would especially love it if we could get more reviews, let us know what you like, such as if you enjoy our writing, what we've added or how we've written Valeria. Or give us constructive criticism. That's more than welcome, we want to get better, it's one of the things we thrive on.**

**Or if you just want to wish RK a happy birthday, that'd be cool too, she messaged me earlier and said her day has gone to hell and has yet to get any better.**

**Enough about that, hopefully you enjoy the chapter and have a good day as well. Mara, out!**

* * *

It was already feeling like a really crappy day.

The group had been walking for a couple of hours and the heat just seemed to multiply the more time wore on. Valeria was sure she looked like complete crap, and honestly, she wouldn't blame someone if they took pity on her and put her out of her misery. Not that anyone in the group would. Half of them weren't that willing to take a life, and the other half seemed to think she was alright. That, or Jade would tell them to leave her alone.

Even riding on Nyla's back was wearing the blonde knife wielder out - and that was saying something, since she wasn't doing anything except lying on the creature's back. It had also probably been about an hour since she used the last of the water within the many canteens she'd filled, so her strength was at its end.

Occasionally one of the girls came over to check on her; even Natalia, which shocked Valeria completely. They hadn't been able to offer her any water, due to theirs being very low, but the occasional healing arte from Tear or Natalia worked wonders for a little while.

A little bit past midday, her senses picked up something very weakly, like a trickle of something that hesitantly brushed against the furthest of her feelers. Sitting up, she held her hand to Nyla's neck, stilling the Arka as the girl closed her eyes and actively tried to feel whatever it was the brushed against her.

The trickle came from the feeler towards the northwest, meaning that if they continued on their current path, then they would likely skip the Oasis, which none of them, most of all Valeria, could afford right now.

"Hey!"

The rest of the group stopped, each of them looking back toward where Nyla and Valeria stood a few paces back. Most of them looked tired, especially the two nobles. Except for Jade, since somehow that bastard didn't ever seem like he was tired or out of breath.

"What is it, Valeria?"

Looking from Tear toward the northwest, Valeria nodded her head, "I felt the barest of pressures from a fonon; the Oasis is that way."

The females at least looked relieved at that revelation, happy that they would finally be able to relax a little around the presence of water. Valeria was more than relieved, she was ecstatic to finally be in the contact of some water and its fonons.

They took the lead, occasionally changing direction any time Valeria felt a different pulse from the fourth fonons. Luckily they only ran into one group of small desert wolves, and the swordsmen took them down without issue, allowing them to move on.

The moment the pressure of water fonons intensified, Valeria sat up completely on the Arka's back, already feeling a surge of strength falling into her fonslots.

Within the next hour or so, the water fonons were abundant in the air, cooling down the surrounding area a bit, though most people who didn't normally feel fourth fonons wouldn't be able to tell the difference. But for Valeria, it was a welcome relief, especially since she could actually see the crystal that helped to form the water of the Oasis.

As the group finally reached the tents that surrounded the waters, Valeria leapt from Nyla, dashing past the line of people looking for a drink from the cool spring and dove headfirst into the water, ignoring the cries emanating from the people running the collection of gald for the spring.

The moment she resurfaced from the spring of water, Valeria was met with a glare from the lady running the spring; she also noticed that Jade was holding back Luke from copying the blonde's actions of jumping into the small source of water as well. Sighing, Valeria rose and walked back to the bank, not even bothering to dry herself as she walked over to the lady.

"This is the only water around for miles, how could you just jump in there? Now it's contaminated and no one will be able to drink it!" the lady scolded.

"With all due respect ma'am, the water is just fine." Valeria tilted her head to the side and shook her head. "I'm a pure fourth fonist, meaning fourth fonons are my only form of fonic artes. This also means that I can control them better than normal fonists and it's nearly impossible for me to contaminate them."

"Seriously?" Luke exclaimed, suddenly looking at her like she'd grown another head.

"Yeah…. I found that out the hard way, that and another fourth fonist had the same thing happen to him," Valeria looked longingly at the water once more but figured she'd worn out her welcome for the moment. "He was a partial teacher to me awhile back. Once I learned all I could from a normal fonist."

That wasn't the only thing her teacher had taught her. He had told her about some ancient texts that he and a few others had been studying about the capabilities of single use fonons, especially if they were used by pure fonists. It was thanks to him that she found out about the ability to dry herself and others, and how she learned the possibility to heal with just the fourth fonon instead of the seventh, though according to him, no one has managed to use many, if any, of the fourth fonon healing fonic artes since ancient times.

Shaking her head, Valeria walked past the lady, using her fonic artes to suddenly dry herself as she walked. Luke caught up to her moments later and looked as though he wanted to ask her something when he suddenly doubled over and clutched his head. Valeria jumped back in shock, looking up from him and over at the others questioningly as Guy ran over.

"Luke! Is it those headaches again?!"

"Headaches?" Tear questioned, coming closer as well.

Guy nodded, his hands clutching Luke to keep him from completely collapsing, "Ever since he was kidnapped, he'll occasionally get headaches, or sometimes even hear voices."

Valeria's eyes widened and she got a thoughtful look on her face, though she kept her thoughts to herself, only glancing at Jade out of the corner of her eye as the Colonel watched the incident with detached interest.

Luke grit his teeth before muttering, "Who...the hell...are you?!"

He was silent for just a moment before he muttered a name Valeria was so used to hearing by now that she wasn't entirely shocked to hear the Fabre heir say it. Though the circumstances for him to mutter the name were definitely odd.

"Asch…. Where are you?!"

Seconds later whatever had caused the red head's headache faded and he sat there panting for just a moment, oblivious to the worry that was hanging over his head from the others surrounding him. Valeria moved over to Nyla then, turning the Arka around as she dug through the bag on the creature's side to grab the wing pack.

"Luke! Are you all right?" Valeria heard Anise question.

As Valeria turned around with the item she'd grabbed from the wing pack, she watched in amusement as Mieu bounced over to Luke as well, acting more worried than any of the rest. It was a little confusing, considering how poorly Luke always treated him. "Master, do you feel sick?"

When Tear moved over to Luke, Valeria took that moment to take Natalia's water canteen from where it was hanging on the girl's quiver. Opening it, she threw in a couple of herbs and swirled them about before handing the water to Tear, "Here, this should help his headache and give him some strength."

As the melodist handed the water to Luke, Natalia glared at Valeria, "That's mine!"

Valeria shrugged. "You're the only one with a canteen to swipe, plus I have a feeling Luke drank all of his a while ago."

Before the girl could say anything else, Guy stood, tilting his head at Luke, getting them back on track. "Hearing imaginary voices again?"

After finishing the rest of the water that was in the pack, Luke managed to stand on shaky feet, shaking his head at the question. "I doubt that was just my imagination..."

"You said something about 'Asch'... did you mean that Oracle Knight?" Natalia questioned.

Luke nodded, though he looked annoyed, "The voice I heard was definitely Asch's. He said he was with Ion in the Zao Ruins..."

Anise gasped, suddenly becoming excited at the thought of finding the Fon Master, "Ion's there?!"

"The Zao Ruins?" Jade frowned slightly, "From two-thousand years ago?"

The redhead turned to look at him, tilting his head when he saw Jade's expression, "Where are they?"

"I'm afraid I don't know. I'd be most grateful if the leader of this mission would find them for us..."

"You really like to be a jerk, don't you?" Luke complained while Valeria strove not to giggle at how much sarcasm there had been in Jade's words.

"Not at all. I'm so good-natured and honest, it almost hurts," Jade replied, acting as if insulted.

Valeria couldn't help it any longer, she burst out laughing and had to bend over to clutch her side at Jade's response, "Puh-lease! I know that's a lie!"

Tear looked at the laughing girl before sighing as her gaze turned to Jade, "Colonel! Please stop teasing Luke. Luke, let's ask the people here in the oasis."

The others began wandering off in different locations, Luke heading off with Guy for a moment before the blond swordsman muttered something to him. Valeria watched as the young noble came back, looking dejected for the moment.

"What's up?"

Luke glanced at Valeria and sighed, "Guy said he had something personal to take care of and asked if I would go with Natalia."

"Is there something wrong with coming with me?" Natalia asked, her arms crossing.

"N-no! I just wanted to go with Guy…"

Valeria laughed as the two walked alongside her and Jade, Tear having gone off with Anise to ask around elsewhere. She didn't really want to babysit the two nobles, especially since she wasn't sure where she stood with them, but at the moment it looked as though that job fell to her, Jade and Nyla. If Jade thought to leave without her, he had another thing coming.

After questioning a few different people, they wound up back by the spring of water and the glaring Order lady. Valeria smiled softly, but made sure to stand on the other side of Jade and away from the woman, not wanting to get into it with her again.

The lady kept a close eye on Valeria but turned her attention to the others, seeing both Luke and Natalia eyeing the water heavily. "Would you like a drink from the spring? Its water is blessed by Lorelei and purifies you when you drink it."

Natalia smiled, "That sounds heavenly."

"The donation for the water is one-hundred gald."

"What?! It's just water! Why should I have to pay?" Luke complained.

The lady opened her mouth to respond but Valeria poked Luke's arm, "Think, we're in a desert, they're in a desert, where there's no water around for miles. This is what they have, so they have to be careful with it."

Natalia nodded, "I see your point…. Luke, pay the lady please."

Valeria watched in amusement as he took money from his pouch and placed it in the outstretched hand of the Order lady. When the lady offered Valeria some, she shook her head and continued to watch as the others drank the water the lady had refilled into their bottles.

"Whew... I really needed that," Luke said, whiping his hand across his mouth.

Natalia nodded, looking in amazement at her bottle, "It certainly was refreshing."

Luke shook his head, glancing off to the side where the shade was, "I could just stay here forever... I really don't want to go back out there."

Valeria had to nod about that, even if she hadn't had any water, "I know that feeling... It just seems to be getting hotter and hotter the longer we're out there. At least here there's a breeze and water… I really don't want to be out there in the sun anymore."

"I know what you mean, the thought to remain here is tempting..." Natalia agreed.

"Then I presume the two of you are ending your journey here?" Jade commented, looking from Luke to Natalia, completely ignoring the fact that Valeria had also commented that she wanted to remain here. "Well, I'm sure it's provided you both with plenty of valuable experience, the sort you'd never have obtained at the palace. Farewell, until we meet again."

"W-what are you talking about?! Nobody's returning to the castle yet! Come on, Luke!" Natalia stuttered, grabbing at Luke's arm.

"How come you didn't mention leaving Valeria here!" He looked accusingly at Valeria, struggling to keep Natalia from knocking him over. "Hey! Relax. Can't we rest a little bit longer?"

"No! We're going now!" Natalia ordered.

"All right, all right! Stop pulling!" Luke ordered, getting dragged further away from Jade and Valeria.

"Well well, she certainly seems easy to handle," Jade commented, an amused smirk adorning his face. He glanced at Valeria. "Don't you think so?"

Valeria looked at him, frowning, "You're not funny. Also, if she believes we're leaving now, she's got another thing coming. I want to stay here for the night and recover some of my energy, especially if we're going to be going all the way to the ruins."

Jade was looking at her now, his thoughtful gaze boring into her, "You sound as if you know where they are."

Valeria shrugged, "Nyla and I may or may not have run across something that resembled ruins awhile back."

Jade raised an eyebrow, "So I take it this isn't your first time around this area?"

"This area, it's my first time. Nyla and I never really made it here before, we kinda got lost. The ruins on the other hand, we did manage to get to. Kinda. It was really rough on us, I'd run out of water and Nyla was trying to remain moving since it was just the two of us. Luckily a caravan of people spotted us and gave us water. We would've traveled with them, only they were going the opposite way that we were," Valeria sighed, "Long story short, we found the ruins, not the oasis. If memory serves, it's to the east."

"And you thought you'd keep this knowledge to yourself?"

"Everyone ran off before I could say anything," Valeria retorted, crossing her arms.

Jade said nothing as he led the way toward the inn set up in the only building built in the oasis. Seeing nothing more she could do either, Valeria decided to go collect Nyla from the trees near the water and followed after him.

* * *

The following morning the group got up and left the Oasis, Valeria grumbling under her breath about not wanting to leave the water. Half the group apparently agreed, especially once they were halfway through the day with the heat getting worse and worse. No one was really talking much either, just wanting to keep moving without wearing themselves down, which was hard to do with the occasional light sandstorm that would blow their way.

By the time day three began for their group, they were slowing down more than they'd anticipated, not wanting to leave the small sand dune that Jade had once again found for them, saving them from being completely in the open for the storms that kept appearing out of no where.

At the moment Anise was cooking something over the small fire that they were hesitant to make, not wanting any extra heat to go along with everything around them. But with the only remaining food they had needing to be cooked to be edible, options were pretty low. While she finished up and handed out the food, immediately putting out the fire, everyone else was lying down, trying to relax even with the heat still high and making everyone sweat.

Talk was still seldom, especially while they ate, but occasionally the group talked about the plan for them when they got to the ruins or even about random topics that had been on their mind for a while. Valeria was at the edge of the group, her gaze facing toward the open desert and munching on an apple, her last one until she got to a marketplace again. Luckily for Nyla, the group had decided to share some of their food with the Arka, so she wouldn't have to go hunt for herself, though she had hunted for the entire group days ago. Finally, after they finished eating, Guy stood and shook himself off.

"This sand is crazy... it's getting all over the place. I could probably make a mountain with all the sand that'll come out of these clothes."

Tear nodded, brushing off her gloves, "Yes, I wouldn't mind a good shower myself."

Valeria sighed, looking longingly at the water pale in her hand, "A shower would be nice, but I would just appreciate having water in the air…."

A strange look passed across Luke's face before he stared off with a hungry look on his face, "Mmm... shower..."

Natalia's sharp gaze quickly fell on the Fabre and she crossed her arms, "Luke! You are the worst! How could you?!"

The redhead quickly looked back and had a confused look on his face, "W-what?! I'm not doing anything!"

"Luke! If you've got time for dirty thoughts, pay more attention to rescuing Ion!" Anise ordered, her thought on the manner clear as she stood.

The red-head blinked, a blush forming across his face, his voice getting flustered, "I-I'm not thinking anything! Leave me alone!"

"Disgusting! I can't believe you're that kind of person!" Natalia scowled at him, looking as though she was seeing him in a new light.

"You pervert!"

Luke glared at Anise, seeming annoyed by her accusation, "Argh! Shut up already!"

At this point Valeria couldn't keep herself calm anymore and started laughing, rolling over to bury her face in Nyla's fur even as Jade came towards where the two were sat, Guy at his side. "...Well Guy, it seems you got lucky."

"...Lucky?"

"You're drooling. They'd have been on you in an instant if they'd noticed," Jade observed.

Valeria looked up at that moment, a grin on her face as she got her laughter under control, "I could only imagine what the girls would do if they saw that, almost makes me want to alert them."

"Please don't… " Guy looked nervous then, casting a fearful look her way. Then he seemed to recover when it looked like she wasn't going to be saying anything to the others, "But wait, why aren't you getting on Luke as well Valeria?"

Standing and dusting off her clothes, Valeria looked away for the smallest moment before looking back at the blond, her tone suddenly glacial, "When you grow up around lewd comments being thrown your way all the time, having a teenage boy who thinks about showers while in the desert isn't much to be worried about. "

Guy blinked at her while Jade adjusted his glasses, eyes locked on the blonde girl. Before either could comment, it appeared like Luke had enough of the others getting on his case for he stalked past them in a huff.

"Come on, let's just find those stupid ruins already!"

Valeria snorted in laughter before climbing aboard Nyla and following the teen, ignoring the looks she got from the two she left behind.

* * *

By midday, the group was tempted to stop, even Jade seemed a little tired from all the heat beating at them from all angles surrounding them. Right as they were about to take a break though, Nyla's ears perked forward and she stiffened, Valeria holding a hand to the Arka's neck, noticing that the creature had either scented or remembered something around them, so they both began to look around.

Off in the distance was a small speck that looked vaguely familiar to the two, so they began to head that way, ignoring the complaints that Luke began giving after he'd sat down. Luckily for the rest of the group, Natalia was quick to order Luke to shut up, which he did, after muttering how annoying the Princess was. That exchange had Valeria amused, though she knew better than to mention that aloud, or else the red head would begin complaining again.

Not even an hour later, the ruins finally came into view, right how Valeria remembered them: crumbling, cracked and really ancient looking. It took them another fifteen minutes to circle around to the front of the ruins where the entrance was but the group was happy they'd finally made it.

Valeria, still riding on Nyla's back, nodded in satisfaction, "Really glad I remembered this location, though it seemed to take longer to get here..."

"Inside here, huh?" Luke questioned, putting his hands on his knees and crouching to rest a moment. Natalia approached the entrance and glanced in before looking back at everyone, a concerned look blooming on her face.

"It looks dark inside..."

Valeria shook her head, arms resting on Nyla, "It actually isn't too bad inside, plus it's an added bonus to be away from the scorching sun and the sandstorms that kick up. I'm actually amazed we'd not run into too many of them. Don't ask me how though, but the ruins give off some unusual light once you're down on the inside, only the stairs are dark."

Natalia looked confused, "So you've been down there?"

"Yeah... It's the reason I knew where the ruins were. Nyla and I escaped a sandstorm the last time we were in the desert because of these ruins. Though we didn't get too far in, I knew we didn't have enough water for the task and who knew what kind of monsters are in there. Besides bats, we ran into a crap-ton of bats."

Throughout her explanation, Valeria watched as Jade walked around the entrance, looking around the ground and through the air with an intense look on his face, "Perhaps it's because of the wind, but there aren't any landship tracks about. I'm a little worried that we may have missed them..."

Anise shook her head at Jade, "Even if that is the case, there could be clues about Ion inside, we have to check it out. Let's go!"

Seeing as none of them could think of a reason to argue, they headed inside, following behind Valeria and Nyla as they led the way, occasionally stepping out of the way of a massive crack within the stairs of the ruins. Before long they reached the bottom and began to head further into the ruins, though the group was forced to stop once they reached a fork in the road.

"So… Which way?" Guy questioned, peering to the right before looking left.

Valeria shrugged, she actually had no idea which way to go, seeing as she and Nyla hadn't actually went this far in the last time. They'd been content to stay near the entrance on the off chance they needed to make a hasty escape, that and they'd really only planned on being there until that storm had subsided, and no longer.

Still… Something in the back of Valeria's head made her look toward the left, as if something was calling out to her, telling her to go that way.

"Not exactly sure which way, but let's try the left."

Since no one else had any reason to doubt her, they began walking, once more in silence. While they walked, Valeria went through the information she had. Apparently this wasn't the first time the God Generals took Ion, not that any of the others knew where they'd taken the Fon Master before, though Valeria believed it had something to do with the reason they were in these ruins.

Now that Valeria thought about it, she recalled something in the papers that Drayden had gotten her, she just hadn't had a chance to look at it while coherent, the heat messing with her more than she'd thought. Later she'd try and look at them, especially the info she'd actually asked for.

She left her musings as they approached a dead end, nothing really special about it. Frowning, she wondered why it was that she felt the need to come this way, especially since they now had to double back. Her thoughts once again stopped as she finally let her eyes fall on something she'd missed during her first glance around the area.

In the corner near a ledge was a orb of sorts, orange and brown in color, floating in the air.

The others were looking around the rest of the small area, so Valeria nudged Nyla to head towards the orb, then dropped from the Arka's back once they were close.

Reaching a hand out, Valeria's fingers brushed against the glowing orb, recoiling moments later as a jolt hit her. Hissing, she dropped to the ground and held her hand to her chest.

"Valeria!"

"I'm fine, Jade…" Looking back, Valeria let her eyes fall on the fuzzball, "Mieu, come here."

The cheagle looked confused for a moment, clearly not used to Valeria asking for him since she normally kept to herself. Luckily, Luke gave the little guy a shove, albeit a bit roughly, and he came over a moment later, "Yes?"

Valeria didn't say anything, just let the cheagle see the orb. He seemed to get excited, and bounced over and began to stand under it. "Second Fonons!"

Valeria nodded, struggling to stand as the rest of the group came over. "Yeah… A largely concentrated amount."

Natalia moved close to it, staring in awe, "They're so pretty!"

Anise tilted her head to the side, "What? How come we can see fonons?"

"This area is most likely a fon slot," Jade commented, walking to Valeria and helping her stand. He took her hand then, holding it up and away from her chest. He frowned, noticing the skin on her hand looked bruised and red.

Valeria scowled at him, "I'm fine! It's not a big deal."

Natalia seemed to notice that she was hurt and came over, taking her hand from Jade and blinking in shock, "Did the fonons do this to you?"

Now Valeria sighed, since she saw no way out of this. At least this kept her from having to explain fonons to Luke. "Yeah… But they likely won't do this to other people, especially if that person is able to use second fonons. My body just can't handle excess fonons like those."

"But wait, then how are you affected by healing artes?"

"It's different if the fonons are just boosting what's already in me, as opposed to combining with what I have to create different artes like you do when you pull fonons from the air to use artes… Um… Yeah, I can't really explain it since I don't understand it myself, I'm only telling you what's been told to me." Valeria took her hand back once Natalia was done, nodding her thanks to the girl.

Valeria wasn't surprised when moments later, Mieu's Sorcerer's Ring began to glow, absorbing the Second Fonons. She'd suspected that the ring was capable of that after learning that Mieu was just a baby cheagle, especially when his fire was stronger than it should be. The cheagle looked confused for just a moment before he went over to a cluster of rocks that was nearby and head-butted it.

The shocked look on everyone's faces amused Valeria to no end, especially since Jade seemed just as surprised as the rest of them. Needless to say, the cheagle came out just fine while the rocks were now broken into a pile of crumbled, smaller boulders. What did they think the second fonons would do?

Mieu made it especially more hilarious when he started bouncing up and down and trailing around Luke. "Wow! I feel like I can break anything!"

This only seemed to annoy the redhead, since he kicked Mieu away from him moments later. "Shut up, Thing!"

Seeing as this was getting no where, and they seemed to be in a dead end anyway, Valeria nudged Nyla, not bothering to get back onto the Arka's back since she really needed to stretch her legs, even if she was immensely tired. "Luke, enough with kicking Mieu, let's head back to the fork, we need to find Ion."

The others agreed, slowly making their way back to the fork in the path, though Jade and Tear seemed most interested in Mieu's new power now, the Colonel even asking to see the ring to check it out.

Valeria listened with veiled interest as he came to the conclusion that there was another fon verse slot but since there likely wasn't going to be any other fonons in high quantity here, both he and Tear seemed to agree that they'd have to keep their eyes open in other locations if given the chance.

Not that Mieu seemed to care, he was just amazed that he got to be even more useful, which Valeria thought was actually kinda cute, if his voice wasn't so high, and he wasn't so energetic all the time. Not that she'd say it aloud anyway.

Once they passed by their previous spot, they continued on, Valeria in the lead for some reason. She didn't think she knew anything more about the ruins anyway, plus she'd been the one to lead them wrong before, but the group didn't seem to mind. Occasionally they ran into a few monsters, but nothing most of the group couldn't handle, even Valeria, who was even more worn down now, and trying to save the remainder of her water bottles by keeping them on Nyla. All she had with her was half a bottle and a couple of gels just in case she needed a sudden boost.

By the time they got towards a long set of stairs, Valeria was toward the back of the group, finally convincing the others that she actually had no idea where she was going and telling them that she'd rather follow behind. Luke was walking right in front of her, seeming to not want to lead anymore than she did.

Right at the bottom of the stairs was a massive section of rocks, making Valeria wonder if the God Generals had even come this way. Mieu seemed excited though, since it allowed him to be useful to the group again. He quickly set to breaking apart the rocks.

Right as he cleared them out of the way, a tremor went through the stairs and they suddenly began to crack. Seeing this, everyone was quick to leap off the stairs, though with Valeria being at the back, and the stairs crumbling too fast, she didn't make it, yet she managed to clutch the ledge before she actually fell completely.

"Valeria!"

She wasn't sure who yelled out, since there were a number of voices and a growl. She also wasn't sure how much longer she would be able to hold on. It had been too long without water and the heat just kept draining her so her strength was at its limit, making it so that she wasn't even able to pull herself up.

_Cheering could be heard around her, the spectators rooting for their chosen combatant. Most of them were cheering for her opponent, not that it surprised the blonde, since Shadow seemed the more likely winner. Especially since she currently had no weapon to use against him and was dangling from a ledge._

_Movement caught her eye as Shadow crept closer, his knife held in front of him pointed at her. He was coming in for the finishing blow, and it was either allow him to do that, or drop and risk a dangerous injury._

_The choice was made for her in the next moment, when he lunged for her and the ledge she'd been holding onto broke apart from the rest of the structure._

Valeria shook her head, trying to get that stupid memory of her past out of the way. Using the last bit of her strength, she attempted to lift herself, getting her arms above the edge of the rocks before she looked up. All she saw was a form rushing towards her, forcing her mind to panic and lose it's control on her muscles.

She lost her hold on the ledge and dropped, seeing the shocked look on Luke's face as he reached out to try and stop her from falling right as he faded from sight and she fell into oblivion.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Mara: Cliffhanger? Oops? Ha!**

**On another note, the next chapter, which should hopefully be done any time now, is going to be a new POV, anyone (besides our beta!) wanna guess who the next POV is going to be? C'mon, guess. If you get it right, I'll give ya a cyber cookie! The gooey chocolate chunk kind, not the virus kind!**

**Let me know what you thought of the chapter, review!**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N:**

**Mara: What?! Twice in a row? Holy cow, right?**

**RK: ...**

**Mara: I'm trying to take your spot as the perky one, is it not working?**

**RK: No. **

**Mara: *sigh* Anyway, meant to have this ready to do a double post on RK's birthday (yesterday) but things came up and it wasn't ready till now. So you had a minor cliffhanger, since we're letting you know what happened right now.**

**This POV was a little rough on me, I kept wanting to get it right, but it wasn't having it. So any thoughts on what you think I could change in the future would be good.**

**RK: Any reviews would be nice, we like hearing from people about what you think.**

**Mara: *whispers* RK's having another bad day, a review or two might make her happy? **

**RK: *glares at Mara* We're not putting that on here.**

**Mara: Anyway, we own nothing except our OCs, read, review and enjoy!**

* * *

"Havoc Strike!"

The arte quickly finished off the remaining bat that was flying in the air, it's cries dying as it slowly disappeared in a burst of fonons. It was the seventh bat that had attacked them, and that was just within the past hour.

"Damn, these things are annoying…"

A snort had him looking over at one of the members of his group, "You sure you should be saying that, Asch? I seem to recall you've been complaining a bit since we got down here."

That had him scowling at the green-haired God-General. Normally, Asch didn't have a lot of complaints when it came to following orders; he took his orders and then completed them. But after traversing through the Zao Ruins, of course he's going to be annoyed with the situation. Around every corner there seemed to be all sorts of monsters, and the heat wasn't helping. Especially when they had to make sure that Ion wasn't going to be passing out on them before they got to the Sephiroth.

Speaking of...

Beside Largo, Ion was looking a little tired and worse for wear. Seeing as he wasn't normally one to go out into the field like the rest of the Oracle Knights, Asch couldn't blame him. Plus they were currently pushing the Fon Master pretty hard, not that Sync seemed to care in the least, since he continued further into the ruins.

How anyone could navigate down there was completely beside Asch, they had to have turned around dozens of corners and traveled down hundreds of flights of stairs; it'd be amazing if they followed the same path out that they used to get in.

Asch sighed, knowing he was going to have to tell Sync to hold up a minute, though before he could order the teen to stop, Ion gasped and rushed past him, moving faster than the red head thought he could.

Sync, being the fastest of the group was quick to move into Ion's path and gripped his arm, stopping his advancement and beginning to pull him back toward them. "I'm afraid I can't allow you to run away."

"No! She needs help!"

She? Seeing as all the people in this group were male, Asch began to wonder if the heat was screwing with the Fon Master's head. It sure seemed likely since he looked a little pale.

He then made the mistake of glancing over to where Ion had been rushing. At first nothing seemed unusual, just a pile of jagged and different sized rocks on top of a mound of sand. Then he realized just what it was that Ion saw.

Blonde hair that blended well with the sand was poking out of the rocks, strands of it obscuring the face of the small figure, while blue and black colors peeked through the slightly bigger boulders covering the person's form. If Asch looked hard enough, he was able to see the rocks lifting barely an inch every so often, so the person who was buried was alive, if only just. But what made Ion think the person buried here was a female?

Growling under his breath, since he knew the Fon Master wouldn't let this drop, Asch stormed over to the rocks and began to push them aside, listening vaguely as Largo came over to help as well, likely coming to the same conclusion Asch had. Sync, on the other hand, began muttering about how this was a waste of time.

The green haired general shut up when they completely uncovered the person, who was indeed female. In fact, both he and Asch gasped at the revelation that it was Valeria who was unconscious right before them.

Why was she here? Where was Nyla? Did that dreck bring her? How did she know him? Those and quite a few other thoughts started circling around in his head moments after brushing Valeria's long blonde hair from her face, allowing them to see some of the damage that had been done to her, be it from the fall or something else.

Her face was bruised, and dozens of small cuts littered her skin from her forehead down to her chin, all of them covered with dried blood. Once they dragged her carefully from the rocks, Asch debated flipping her over, not wanting to chance the risk of causing her additional injuries. But then again, if she was already injured and they didn't stop the flow of blood, as he noticed a large amount of blood covering the rocks she'd been lying on, she might bleed out and die.

Movement behind him had him looking over his shoulder at Sync, who was pulling a number of gels from the bag at his side. Asch was about to question what he was doing when the green-haired teen threw them at Asch, leaving him to catch them before they fell to the ground. He then crouched by Valeria, ignoring Asch's order to leave her alone, and turned her over so they could see the damage.

Sync hissed, and Asch had to keep himself from doing the same. Two large sharp rocks were embedded in her flesh, one almost directly in the center of her stomach, and the other along her right leg. It actually shocked Asch that they hadn't caused the two rocks to rip open any more of her flesh when they'd gotten her out from the other rocks.

Gels alone wouldn't fix this...

"There isn't much we can do for her here. It might be kind for us to end her suffering here. Let her die in peace..."

Asch glared at Largo, though he knew that the older man wasn't happy about this either. Sync was the one to speak though, before Asch had a chance, taking back the gels as he spoke. "Normally I'd agree with you. However, if word comes out that we did end up killing her and we hadn't tried our hardest to save her, Malkuth would take it badly and would turn on the Order. Her family is pretty high in the noble houses of Malkuth, after all, and they don't take kindly to hearing that one of their own wasn't taken care of."

Ion had knelt down as well, trying his hardest to brush the rest of the small rocks from Valeria's form. He looked up in shock though, face full of confusion, "She's a Malkuth noble? I'm surprised I didn't recognize her, then. What house is she from?"

Asch glanced at Sync, wondering if the Fifth Division Commander was going to reveal that, seeing as Valeria kept a lot a secret for a reason. Asch knew, and he was pretty sure Sync knew as well, seeing as the last few times he'd seen Valeria in Daath, she'd been around the teen more than she'd visited Asch. Not that he'd minded at the time, he'd been busy with things from Van anyway, and hadn't been able to get away from his responsibilities.

Sync either hadn't heard the Fon Master, or he didn't care. Knowing that the General didn't really like the Fon Master, Asch assumed the latter was the case. "Either way, we have to try and get her to a state were she won't just die from blood loss."

Asch turned back to Valeria, scowling at the situation. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Sync trying to feed the girl the gels he'd gotten out but it appeared that she wasn't going to be swallowing anything any time soon; her breathing had also dropped pretty low as well.

Thinking back on some of the training he'd been going through recently, Asch placed his hands near her two wounds, "When I tell you, remove the rocks..."

Sync looked at him, and Asch had a feeling that if he would've been able to see the teen's face, he would've seen a scowl, "If you do that, she'll bleed out!"

Asch shook his head, "Not if I close the wounds..."

"You sure you'll be able to do that?" Largo grunted.

Asch hesitated for the briefest of moments before nodding, "I'm sure. Besides, if we don't do anything, she'll bleed out anyway."

Largo seemed to agree, since he focused on the two rocks and appeared to be waiting for the go ahead. Remembering the fonic verses in his head, Asch began to form the arte above the two wounds, jerking the seventh fonons that he required together to send at the wounds and pouring in a little bit more energy than usual, though it was definitely needed.

"Now...!" Largo swiftly pulled the two rocks out, and when the wound didn't begin bleeding, Asch faltered just a moment. Then he remembered that he needed to close the wound. "O soothing light... Heal!"

At first it didn't seem like he'd done the arte correctly, the fonons swirled above the injuries but didn't actually act as they were supposed to but then, after a few heartbeats, they seeped into the wounds and they began to stitch themselves back together pulling some of the blood that had begun to dry onto Valeria's skin back into her body as well. Sync took that next moment to try and get her to swallow one of the gels, nodding when he got it to go into her mouth so she could swallow it. Color began returning to her face and Asch just realized how badly she'd paled, thinking it had been a trick of the light.

Two more gels, another Heal and some mild cursing on Asch's part later, and Valeria was breathing steadily and looking much better than she had when they'd first found her, her minor scrapes all gone and the two major wounds mostly healed with only scabs remaining. It bothered Asch a small bit, since he had a feeling the two scabs would scar, but he was running low on energy right now. When she showed no sign of waking, Asch put his hand to her forehead and realized she was a little hot. Which also brought another thing to his mind.

"She needs water,"he realized, and then cringed. They each had enough water to last them two more days, which meant they really didn't have any to spare for her, especially since she required more water than most people.

Sync seemed to realize this as well, since Asch heard him curse loudly after he was done taking care of the two creatures that had decided to come upon their small group. Before either of them could say anything about it, the Fon Master thrust his water bottle in front of Asch, leaving the red head to stare at Ion.

"You said she needed water, correct? I want to give her some of mine."

Seeing as it was a better option, the rest of them needed their water since they tended to protect Ion and thus wasted more water, Asch didn't argue and angled Valeria's head so she would swallow two gulps of water from the bottle before handing it back to Ion. If the Fon Master ran out of water, they'd just have to worry about it when it came to that.

Shifting his grip on Valeria, Asch began to carefully maneuver her so that she would be able to fit on his back. His grip faltered and he almost dropped her, had Largo not been ready to catch her.

"Asch, give her to me, I can move fine with her weight."

"No." Both men turned to look at Sync, "Even though it'd be easier, if she was to wake while you hold her, Largo, she'd panic and would likely injure the both of you while trying to get away. And since we just spent time helping her heal, that'd be counterproductive."

"You know about her phobia?" Ion asked, surprise clear in his tone.

Once again Sync seemed to ignore the Fon Master and looked directly at Largo, "Asch has known her for a while, and if she wakes while he carries her, there is a less likely chance of injury on everyone's part. You take the rear and I'll lead. Asch will stay in the center with her and the Fon Master, casting artes if they're needed. Let's move out, we've already spent too much time here, I can hear monsters heading this way."

Asch couldn't really blame Sync for his decision to have him stay in the center with Ion. While carrying the girl he would be limited in what he was able to do, so he'd need all the chances he could get to cast in order to protect himself, Valeria and Ion. Shifting Valeria again, Asch stood and almost fell over, having expected the blonde to weigh more. When he got himself under control he looked back at her, a frown marring his face. She weighed almost nothing!

Shaking his head, Asch moved to walk next to Ion, studiously ignoring the fact that the Fon Master kept looking over at Valeria with a worried look on his face.

Asch, on the other hand, was beginning to get lost in his thoughts. Normally whenever he saw the blonde that was currently passed out on his back, she had her Arka companion with her. And Asch knew Nyla, that Arka was as loyal as they come. She was most definitely freaking out now that Valeria wasn't near her.

Another thing that bugged the red head was that he clearly recalled exactly who was in the group with his replica, who had come down from the factory exit and surprised the Oracle Soldiers stationed there. And while he'd seen a blonde woman there at the time, he knew it was Natalia, not Valeria. The only other blond in the group then was Guy, Asch's former friend and companion.

So why was Valeria here?

He knew she wasn't one to handle strong areas with heat, her senses with fourth fonons always made it hard on her, and she wouldn't willingly risk going through the Zao Desert. Especially not after what had happened to Nyla and her the last time they'd gone through the desert.

He remembered hearing about that in one of the many letters she usually sent him, and had to keep from shuddering at the description she gave of the monster she'd run into. Apparently they'd managed to get out of that area alive, but had been injured and had to rest at the first spring they'd run into for a couple of days before being able to go further.

Asch sighed, shifting his hold on Valeria slightly so that he was able to glance at her face as it rested on his shoulder. Her breathing was still low, but better than before. He was almost tempted to cast another Heal on her, but without any gels to recover energy; he needed to conserve what he had left in case of an attack.

It was damn lucky for her that he'd begun to learn healing artes recently, not having a use for them before now. Then again, it was mostly because of the blonde on his back that he was learning them. More often than not, whenever he ran into her, either she or Nyla was injured.

Wasn't that how he'd met her? Thinking back on it, Asch shook his head. No, it had been because of fonic artes that he'd met her. The injuries had come later, after that.

_Just once, once! Asch would appreciate it if the fonons around him would agree and work. He'd been at this for the longest time, and for some weird reason none of the fonons would respond to him. It was infuriating!_

_"__You're doing it wrong."_

_Asch flinched, stumbling away from the voice he'd heard next to his ear. The next thing he knew, he was face down on the ground, having tripped over the tree root he'd been leaning against while trying to make his arte work._

_Flipping around, Asch leveled his gaze, which had shifted to a glare, on the female that stood over him. Her shoulder length blonde hair was partially covering her eyes, but he still found himself staring at the silver irises, his glare shifting to confusion. Had he ever seen anyone with eyes that color before?_

_Then he realized that he was sitting in the dirt on his ass staring up at some random girl who didn't appear to be related to the Oracle Knights in any way, if her short black slacks and light blue shirt was any indication. The only other items on her were a golden belt, that screamed money, and a single white glove that was covering her right arm, stopping right below her elbow. Why was she wearing only one glove?_

_But the more important question… "Who are you, and why are you here? This courtyard is for Oracle Knights only!"_

_The girl blinked at him, not quite seeing him if her glazed over eyes were any indication. Finally she seemed to realize he'd spoken for she looked around and shrugged. "I'd been trying to locate someone, thought he might've been this way. But then again… I can't actually see him being outside like this…"_

_"What__?"_

_"__One thing led to another and I found myself here. I still can't seem to navigate this place, it's huge," she finished, oblivious to his question. She then sat down next to him, ignoring the glare he sent her way as she began to draw on the ground. He opened his mouth to tell her off again when she put her finger to her mouth and shushed him, "Watch."_

_Startled, Asch did. Her fingers traced along a path in the dirt, showing a fonic symbol, similar to one of the ones he was currently trying to learn. She then drew another fonic symbol, looking like an altered form of the first one, the jerky lines that had been there in the beginning suddenly smoothed out into more curved forms. "You're doing it with too much force. Fourth fonons, like their physical form, are forever flowing. If you jolt them with force, they'll just dance away from you. Water likes to play, so instead of jerking them, try batting them playfully. It'll make things easier. Watch."_

_Asch looked from her to her diagram, watching the fonons in the air as she forcefully tried to make them work together. Her arte actually succeeded in forcing the fonons into forming the attack, but it seemed to do less damage than it should have. Next she began using the same arte, but instead of forcing the fourth fonons, they actually seemed to be playing with her, swirling around her right before she sent them toward the location of her attack, solidifying and dropping down in a powerful version of a Splash._

_"__If you try to have the fonons play with you, it'll work out better. Same goes for third fonons and sixth fonons. Maybe even seventh fonons, but I haven't actually seen anyone really work with those and I can't use them," she explained. She then turned to look at Asch, apparently looking at him fully for the first time, if her widening eyes meant anything. She moved a couple of feet away from him._

_"__Uhhh…?"_

_She smiled, though it seemed strained. "Sorry… Nothing against you, just… Never mind. Try that arte now."_

_He felt like he should've questioned her about it, but decided against it. This time he compared her second fonic glyph to the one he was currently using for his attack, mentally tracing over the jagged lines to form them into smoother sections. That done, he gathered the fourth fonons to him, and they seemed to respond better than before; it almost shocked him how easy it was._

_"__O frigid blades, pour forth! Icicle Rain!"_

_Sure enough, the arte actually began to form, albeit a little slow and not as powerful as it should be._

_"__Good, all you need to do is practice until forming the arte becomes second nature. Now—"_

_"__Miss!"_

_The two of them looked over as a cleric suddenly came rushing towards them. He stopped a few feet away and paused to catch his breath before looking at the girl who'd been helping Asch, "Locrian Colonel Dist sent me to find you, he's been waiting for you to arrive!"_

_The girl blinked, then gasped, realizing that she'd apparently spent to much time there with the former noble. "Crap! Okay, I'm coming."_

_Asch frowned, not entirely sure what's going on. Sure, she'd helped him, but Asch was pretty sure this girl wasn't supposed to be led around the Cathedral. He opened his mouth to speak when the girl looked at him._

_"__Before I go, what's your name? Mine's Valeria."_

_Startled once again by her sudden question, Asch stopped himself from snapping at her. She was looking at him expectantly while the cleric looked panicked. "Er… Asch…"_

_"__Got it! Nice to meet you, Asch, see you around!"_

_She then ran off, with the cleric stumbling to keep up, before Asch could say anything. So instead, he glanced at the two fonic glyphs she'd drawn and sighed. While she probably shouldn't have been there, he can't deny that he was glad she was. She'd saved him from a couple of hours, if not days, worth of work trying to figure out why the fonons wouldn't agree with him._

_So, her name was Valeria?_

Asch jolted from the memory, shocked that he'd forgotten about that. Plus, the way she had described using fonons made a lot more sense than the information the seventh fonist teaching him healing artes was giving him. She did say that seventh fonons might react the same as fourth fonons, right? Maybe if he would've manipulated the fonons better, he would've healed Valeria's injuries with a single use of Heal and they wouldn't have scabbed the way they did.

He also recalled the next time he'd seen her, a few weeks after that event. But what puzzled him was that she apparently hadn't remembered meeting him and helping him with his fonic artes. It had been odd...

"Asch!"

The red head jolted for the second time, looking at Sync and then where he indicated. He'd been so lost in thought that they had finally reached the Sephiroth door without him even realizing it.

Largo and Sync moved to stand between himself, Ion, the Sephiroth door and the bridge they'd crossed to come here, blocking the way of any creatures that might attempt to come at them. And his replica's group, if they ever arrived.

Asch was sure they would come, that Fon Master Guardian wouldn't waste this chance to try and get Ion back, so it was just a matter of time. Though Asch suddenly wished they would hurry. He had a feeling that the Malkuth Colonel would be able to handle Valeria better than his small group was able. She'd grown up with him - part of her life, anyway.

Striding toward the door, Asch carefully set Valeria down and leaned her against the wall, a pillar hiding her from sight. Feeling her forehead again didn't rise any hope in him about her condition. If anything, her temperature had risen and they didn't have any more water that they could spare.

Scowling, he rose and walked over to Ion, grabbing his arm and leading him over to the door. "Open it."

Ion moved to do so until they all heard the tell tale sounds of running. Glancing back, Asch noticed just the people he'd been thinking about rushing towards them, a large mass of fur right behind them.

So Valeria and Nyla were indeed with this group, the only question was: why?

Asch's gaze fell on Ion; surprised he hadn't attempted to run towards the group, only to see the green haired teen's gaze on Valeria. So he didn't want to leave her with the God-Generals? He should've tried to get away, not that he would've gotten far.

Largo moved to stand between them, shifting his blade to his back, "The Fon Master is in the middle of a ritual. We'll have no interference from you."

Asch moved to turn around when he heard Van's sister speak, but another voice had him turning back to look at the group. Sure enough, Natalia was there, he hadn't imagined seeing her the day he and the others had kidnapped Ion. It angered him that his replica got to travel with her, and that she thought that dreck was the true Luke!

Shaking his head, Asch moved back to Ion and nudged him over to the door, once more ignoring the rest of the issues that lay behind him as Sync and Largo began to speak to the replica's group.

"I'm not going to tell you again, Fon Master. Open the door."

Ion seemed to hesitate again, as if wondering if he should listen to the red head, then finally came to the conclusion that he should follow orders. As the Fon Master held his hands up to begin the opening arte, Asch heard his fellow God-Generals ready themselves for battle and turned to glance over.

The fight began with Natalia and Jade falling back to support while Guy and the Fon Master Guardian went after Sync, leaving the replica and Van's sister to go for Largo.

"Nyla, go for Sync, we'll leave Largo to Luke and Tear!" Jade had Asch smirking when he thought to order Nyla like that. Didn't the Colonel know that Valeria hung around Sync all the time with Nyla. Due to that, Asch really doubted that the Arka would attack Sync unless there was a specific need for it.

Then again, knowing Valeria, Jade might not even know that Valeria knew Sync or even himself. After all, the blonde girl was known for skirting around issues, if Asch knew anything about her himself; which he did.

The fight was of little interest to him after that, since he needed to keep an eye on Ion to make sure he was indeed unlocking the Sephiroth door. Only the occasional happening interested him, such as Nyla suddenly circling around Largo to suddenly dart in front of Sync, blocking an occasional attack meant for the green haired God-General. It was apparently beginning to irritate some of the replica's group since Asch heard a couple of them yelling at the Arka to watch where she was going.

Still, he wasn't going to interfere at the moment, at least not until the Fon Master was done.

Glancing back at the door, Asch watched with very thin interest as the rest of the locking mechanism swirled around before aligning to create a pathway, allowing a silver light to slide through it from the center towards the outside. As the light reached the edge, the pathway burst and the Sephiroth door shimmered then disappeared completely.

Right as this happened, Asch turned to see the other Generals falling to the ground with the group standing on the offensive.

Amusingly, Asch noticed Nyla standing in front of Sync, though the Arka's gaze was still trained on Largo. Still… "The two of you together STILL can't handle them? Pathetic!"

He really couldn't stand it any longer. Just looking at the smug look on his replica's face after beating the two of them was pissing him off. Drawing his blade, Asch dashed forward right as the replica did, twisting his blade to collide against the other red head's. The dreck looked shocked for the barest of moments before Asch changed the course of his next strike, forcing the idiot to pay closer attention to what was going on.

This continued for a couple of strikes before Asch noticed that his replica had fallen into the telltale stance of one of Van's artes. Smirking to himself, Asch prepared to use that same arte, unleashing it just a second before the idiot did.

Both artes canceled each other out, forcing the two of them to face off against each other again, yet all Asch's replica did was stare at him in shock. "That was... that was one of Master Van's moves! How do YOU know it?!"

Was his replica really that dense? Sure Asch had been calling him an idiot for a long time but that was mostly because he knew the replica wouldn't have the same experience as the original. But hearing this dreck speak made him seriously wonder… "What are you, stupid?! It's because we trained in the same style, how else?!"

Asch was sorely tempted to continue until Sync was suddenly at his side, hand placed on Asch's shoulder. "Asch! Stop! You get carried away when left on your own. Put away your sword. Now!"

For the barest of moments Asch considered ignoring Sync's orders, but then he remembered that Sync had been put in charge of this mission, so ignoring the green haired General's orders would be considered insubordination and that wasn't something he needed. Not if he planned on figuring out what Van was planning.

Scowling, Asch nodded and sheathed his sword, moving back towards Ion. He paused mid-step though and glanced over towards where he'd left Valeria, having forgotten about her in his anger against his replica. From his vantage point, she was still leaned against the pillar, but he had a feeling that those in the replica's group hadn't even realized she was even there.

"Let's make a deal. In exchange for ending the fight here, we'll let the Fon Master go."

"We won't need any deals if we just wipe you out."

Sync scoffed at Guy's refusal to his original offer, "Don't forget we're standing beneath the desert. We can bury you along with us."

Largo laughed, adding on to what Sync had mentioned, "We'd die too, of course, but that is a sacrifice we're willing to make."

Asch was glad he was looking away from them, since he had a feeling that he was scowling at his colleagues words. He wasn't above sacrificing himself for a reason, but the reason just given wasn't one he was okay with at the moment, seeing as he had a lot of other things he needed to get done before he was gone from this world.

Luckily it seemed that their group was willing to agree to a ceasefire for the moment, so Asch didn't have to worry too much about there being an issue. Other than how he and the others would be able to get Valeria out of here alive.

The Fon Master Guardian cried out next, seeming shocked when Ion wouldn't move any closer to their group. "Ion! Come on, we need to get out of here!"

Asch looked over, raising an eyebrow. The Fon Master shook his head, "I don't want to leave without her!"

All at once Asch noticed half of the people there zeroing in on the fact that Nyla was no long between the two groups and was now on the side of the God-Generals, padding carefully over towards where Asch had set Valeria earlier.

Jade seemed to tense when he realized this, apparently not expecting Asch or the other Generals to keep their word on the ceasefire. Then the Colonel's eyes narrowed as he finally saw what the Arka was headed towards, "Valeria!"

Guy's hand was on his sword once again, coming to the girl's defense, "Return her as well!"

Sync was the one to respond, before Asch was able to open his mouth, "It doesn't matter if we give her to you, one less thing off our plate."

His tone shocked Asch, since he could've sworn Sync normally didn't act that way around the blonde fonist. In fact he recalled Sync finally giving up on telling Valeria off and instead just put up with how often she'd bug him. Hearing the way he would just hand her off seemed wrong somehow.

Then he thought about it from a logical standpoint. It was clear that Nyla had come with the group, and the Arka normally held a lot of Valeria's things, so she likely held the girl's water supply as well. They also had multiple healers in their group and would be able to support whatever else might be wrong with Valeria.

Also, if Jade didn't know about her friendship with the generals, then neither he nor Sync should mention it.

Another tense moment went through the group as Nyla finally reached Valeria, growling at Asch in the next instant. He knew that the Arka wasn't actually giving him a warning growl, but a request for help. Apparently the others didn't for they all seemed ready to spring into action if Nyla suddenly required assistance.

Frowning, Asch used the excuse of helping situate Valeria on Nyla to once again check her forehead. She still seemed to be rather hot. So now he was actually glad that she would be going with his replica's group, they might be able to handle what was going on with her.

He sure as hell wasn't able to.

Nyla padded back towards the others, pausing to nudge Ion when the Fon Master attempted to hesitate again. When they were back with the others, Sync told them to leave, not even hesitating to restate his threat.

After a few more parting comments, their group left; leaving Asch alone with the other Generals, as well as his thoughts. He really needed to figure out what was going on. Having the bare minimum of knowledge wasn't good enough; not if he was going to decide whether to help Van or to break his ties to the man.

So he had his first objective, find more information on Van's plans.

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	8. Chapter 8

**A/N:**

**RK: Dun Dun Duuuuuuun! Chapter 8! On Mara's B-Day!**

**Mara: Yup. About time too.**

**RK: -stares blankly at Mara- It's your fault, this chapter was your baby, not mine.**

**Mara: Shut up! -clears throat- Anyway, RK is right, this chapter is my baby. That I worked hard on. To post for you on my birthday.  
**

**RK: So be happy! Also, neither Mara nor I are responsible for anything in Tales of the Abyss, only our characters are our own!**

**Mara: Enjoy!**

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Eyes blinking open, Valeria looked around in confusion. It was night out and she was lying on Nyla, near the Oasis pool. How did she get there? Wasn't she with the others right outside the ruins?

Movement had her looking over to Tear, watching as the Melodist finished gathering water and moved next to the blonde.

"You're awake?!"

The fact that Tear actually seemed concerned and surprised had Valeria very confused. Had she passed out somewhere and they'd had to turn around and go back to the Oasis? Did they manage to rescue Ion first? Were the God-Generals even there, or had Asch been messing with them the entire time?

At least one of those questions was answered when Ion came around the corner of a tent, walking toward Valeria, Tear and Nyla. His eyes widened when he noticed the blonde's eyes were open, and he picked up his pace, leaving his Guardian in the dust.

"What happened?" Valeria finally asked.

"Don't you remember?"

Valeria responded to Tear with a frown. Would she be asking what happened if she actually remembered?!

"Is that a no? We were in the ruins, and a flight of stairs collapsed with you still on them. The next time we saw you, you were with the God-Generals, unconscious."

"Huh…" She honestly couldn't even remember arriving at the ruins, let alone entering them.

Tear nodded and began to unwrap something that was around Valeria's middle, causing the fonist to look down and notice that there was a bandage wrapped around her abdomen. At her look, Tear felt the need to continue right as Ion reached them. "I guess in the fall, you were severely injured, though I don't know how you were healed. After we'd gotten you back from the God-Generals we'd noticed the cuts in your clothes, so Natalia and I checked you out. You'd been fine for a while until Nyla alerted us that your wounds had reopened somehow. Since then Natalia and I have been taking turns trying to heal you."

"Trying?"

"Every time we healed them, they began to reopen after a while. Our guess was your body wasn't really taking to the healing, since you hadn't had any water."

Ion nodded, "That was actually what Asch believed as well."

Everyone looked at him then, with Valeria voicing what they all thought, "Asch was trying to heal me?"

"He and Sync occasionally applied a couple of gels anytime your wounds opened."

Tear seemed to take this better than Valeria, since she looked relieved, "That's good, although I don't know why they would do that."

"Why is that good?" Valeria questioned.

Tear looked the girl in the eye, "If what I can tell with my artes is correct, had you not gotten any form of healing within the next fifteen minutes of being healed, you probably wouldn't have survived…."

After Tear's revelation, the melodist went away, leaving Ion and Anise with Valeria as she struggled with that info. Ion was sitting close to her while Anise was closer to the water. The Fon Master kept looking at her out of the corner of his eye, and it began to bug her. "What is it, Ion?"

"It's nothing, really. I don't fully understand why the God-Generals put as much effort as they did in keeping you alive. You'd been injured badly, and Largo had suggested ending your suffering…"

She really didn't have an answer to that, plus she was getting tired again. So instead of answering, she shrugged and turned away from the Fon Master to lie down, and attempted to pass out. Eventually Ion got the hint and left, taking Anise with him and leaving the blonde to her thoughts.

Next time she ran into Sync or Asch, they had some questions to answer.

Before she knew it, it was morning, and she hadn't had a lot of sleep. Eventually, Jade came over to check her over, along with Tear. Luckily, the melodist didn't comment to Jade about the severity of the injuries, though she had let slip the night before to Valeria that the two wounds would likely scar. It wasn't anything new to her, so she wasn't worried. The only thing Tear told Jade was that as long as Nyla didn't jostle her, Valeria was able to travel with them, so they left within the hour.

By the time they finally reached the Chesedonia, almost everyone was fed up with walking, let alone through sand. No one was speaking any more than necessary, and only the sound of someone occasionally drinking water, or some monster cries from a distance echoed around them as they reached the outskirts of the city.

Even after spending time in the Oasis with the water and having both healers working on her during their journey there, Valeria was massively weakened. There was also a possibility of her having a fever, not that she was able to do anything about it right then.

Even after Tear had told her about what had happened down in the ruins, Valeria still couldn't remember what had happened. Apparently she had helped Mieu get a new ability, but she didn't know how that came about either. She also still wasn't able to wrap her brain around the fact that the God-Generals had helped her, even healed her. Not that she wasn't thankful, but she honestly couldn't figure out how. If the wounds were as serious as Tear said, that many gels would've cost a lot, and she knew the God-Generals weren't swimming in money.

Yeah, she was going to get answers one way or another.

Glancing up, Valeria managed to stop herself from running over Anise, not realizing the group had stopped for the moment.

"-go to the Malkuth consulate, they should show us to the ship."

Riiiight. Their group was supposed to be meeting Tear's brother, Van, at the consulate. Which meant that Valeria needed to get away before they reached that location; or her freedom would go up in flames.

Especially when she was sure Jade had requested some female soldiers to be transferred over to help escort her back to Grand Chokmah. Yeah, no, she didn't want to return yet.

Nyla headbutted her, knocking her once more from her thoughts as she noticed the group was heading toward the inn now, something about Luke needing rest? She vaguely recalled hearing about that, didn't she? Shaking her head, Valeria followed once she noticed that Jade was still by her side as well.

Though right as they got to the inn, the red head appeared to be having another issue, turning his blade on Tear. Feeling bad, if only for a moment, Valeria used that as an excuse to get away, noticing that Jade's full attention had fallen to Luke. Hopping on Nyla, the blonde ordered the Arka to take off.

Once they were a far enough distance away from them, Valeria allowed Nyla to slow, having her head towards the Kimlascan side port since she knew the others would eventually head to the Malkuth side. Well, that and the Malkuth soldiers might attempt to corral Valeria into staying.

The docks in the Kimlascan side port were pretty dull compared to what she recalled from the Malkuth port. Most of the soldiers stared at her and the Arka as they passed, but it appeared they were used to people walking around the docks since they didn't see the need to stop them and force them away.

Heading toward the far end of the docks, Valeria hopped down from Nyla and shed half of her clothes before jumping into the water, leaving Nyla to lie down near a pile of boxes.

Just being in the water helped to bring Valeria's temperature down to a manageable level, for which she was grateful. The fonons that formed below the surface of the water brushed against her in gentle waves, sending even more energy into her and helping her rejuvenate the remainder of her lost energy. So by the time she did several laps from the docks out to a rocky crag half a mile away, her energy level was almost back to normal.

The laps also allowed her to think a few things over. Her thoughts on the ruins weren't changing, being that she wasn't able to recall a thing. It also appeared as though she'd injured her left hand while down there, since it had been occasionally bothering her after she woke up in the Oasis. Natalia had told her that she'd healed the hand while in the ruins, but again, Valeria didn't remember it at all.

She also had heard Jade having a quiet-ish conversation with both Tear and Ion about the Sephiroth, but Ion hadn't said anything interesting.

Which reminded her…

Hoisting herself from the water, the blonde padded over to Nyla, the Arka not even bothering to look up as the girl went through the wing pack to withdraw the packet of papers Drayden had gotten her while in Baticul.

The first couple of pages were information that had been collected on Luke, so she put those aside for the moment, promising herself mentally that she'd get back to them later. The next several papers were details about a couple of replication projects and the history of replicas. Those had her pausing for a moment since she actually hadn't asked for those, so they must have been the ones that Drayden thought she needed. Though it wasn't as though she didn't already know a bit about replicas, seeing as she had grown up around Jade and Dist; and Dist never shut up about the projects he'd worked on.

Ignoring those as well, just for the moment, Valeria turned finally to the information that she'd thought she'd seen when she'd first leafed through the pages when she got them. Sure enough, the Underworld did have some information about the Sephiroth, though not as much as she'd like. It gave her the basics on them, how they were the pillars that supported the outer lands and how the Order protected them, what it didn't give her were the details about each specific one and why there might be anything giving the God-Generals, on orders from Van or Mohs, any reason to look into them.

Maybe Drayden wasn't as high up in the Underworld as she'd thought? The Underworld prided itself on all the information they collected, so there's no real reason they shouldn't have more than this. Either they were severely lacking, which couldn't be the case, or only really high people in the Underworld's chain of command could access that information.

Like the Limiter…

Valeria blinked, suddenly remembering the task that she needed to get done for the Limiter. Grumbling to herself about forgetting about it, she dug out that letter next.

'Location: Choral Castle

Task: One of the Fon Machines there has secret information on a project called Origin. Insert the fon disc, break whatever code is blocking the information, then transfer that info as well as any other secret files from the machine onto the disc.

Side note: Valeria, since I'm sure you might end up with this, there's a sinister presence at the castle, see if you can take care of it. You'll find it by my signature, good luck!

-Limiter'

Valeria cursed, finding it annoying that one, the Limiter obviously knew that she would somehow get sucked into the Underworld all of a sudden, and two, she needed to be on that boat with Jade and the others. If she remembered correctly, Choral Castle was near Kaitzur Naval Port.

Grumbling some more, Valeria quickly put on what items she took off and began walking towards the Malkuth Consulate, leaving Nyla to follow behind. The Arka was soon rushing forward however, much to the surprise of Valeria, and she once again had a feeling that Nyla would try and attack someone, even if it was playfully. And since the Arka was hard to impress, Valeria could count on one hand the number of people Nyla would rush toward like that.

The only question was: which one was it this time?

The sight of green hair soon answered that for the blonde, and she had to keep from laughing as Nyla nearly barreled Sync over for the second time in the same city. Sync, unlike before, apparently didn't want to be shoved to the ground, since he moved to the side and crossed his arms as he looked at Nyla.

Valeria had the feeling he was scowling at the Arka.

Maybe she should remove his mask again to see if she was right?

Thinking about that for a moment, the girl realized he wouldn't let her, since they were out in the open. So instead she hurried toward them, smirking as she leaned against Nyla. "We really need to stop meeting like this, Sync."

"Get a hold of your pet, and then we'll be fine."

"But Nyla seems to like you! Otherwise she wouldn't run you over every time she saw you."

Sync looked away, scoffing, "Yeah, right." He looked back at them then, this time frowning, "Your pet kept blocking your friends during our fight in the ruins."

Valeria tilted her head, snorting softly, "Friends? I think you mean traveling companions. And do you mean blocking them when you attacked or blocking you when they attacked? 'Cause from what I heard from Guy, who was annoyed most of the time when it happened, she apparently protected you during the fight."

Sync appeared to be shocked by that, since he had nothing to say on the matter.

"By the way, care to tell me how much money you and Asch wasted on me down there? That had to be a lot of gels to heal up that much damage, if Tear is to be believed."

Sync snorted and began walking away, apparently not wanting to answer her question. Well, fine, two can play at that game! Grabbing the teen's arm, Valeria jerked him off the main path and down a side alley, away from the stalls. She had a feeling she only managed this because Sync hadn't been expecting her to try something like that. Nyla followed, if only to block the green haired God-General from making a run for it.

Before they had a chance to speak, though, a grunt had them turning to look toward the deeper part of the alleyway. "Me Ant Lion Man! You give apple gel!"

Valeria glanced at Sync, a questioning look on her face. Apparently, Sync didn't know what to do either, and only shrugged. The weird man grunted again, stepping closer to the pair for a moment until Nyla jumped between the two and the weird man, growling at him.

"Me Ant Lion Man!"

"You already said that!" Sync growled, shoving Valeria's hands away from him and shifting his position to a fighting stance in case they had to attack.

Now that Valeria looked, the man was just standing there, near a… hole? He hadn't actually made any weird actions toward them other than stepping forward to get their attention. And all he wanted was an apple gel? She had a couple that she could spare, and if it got this weird guy to leave them alone, then she was willing to give it to him.

Sync made a noise when she walked over to the guy, but didn't stop her. She handed the weird man the gel and then watched in shock as he turned and threw it into the hole, the sand slowly sinking to cover the gel.

Frowning now, Valeria looked at him and blinked in surprise when he suddenly thrust two pieces of paper in her face before disappearing in a puff of smoke. As she smoke cleared, Valeria took that moment to look down at the papers and glance at what was on them. What shocked her was that at the top of each page was the symbol of the Underworld, and both papers seemed to hold some information on other top members of the organization.

This Ant Lion Man person was a part of the Underworld?

Nyla growled, which had Valeria looking back over at Sync right as he was about to run away. Seeing no other option at this point in time, Valeria darted forward, again somehow catching the green-haired teen off guard, and snatched the mask from his face, knowing he wouldn't rush off into the main streets of Chesedonia without it.

Her knowledge was proved correct when green eyes leveled a glare on her as he attempted to grab the mask from her hands, something that would normally be easy, since he was actually a few inches taller than her. But Valeria had the benefit of using Nyla as a step ladder, and held it where Sync wouldn't be able to reach it.

"Answer my question, and I'll give it back!"

He glared harder, and added a scowl as he crossed his arms, "Give me my mask, Valeria!"

It was Valeria's turn to glare at him, "First off, I hate this mask and wish you'd stop wearing it. Second, I told you, answer my question and I'll give it back!"

"If you hate it so much then why do you keep stealing it?" Sync sneered.

"Correction, I hate it on YOU, I like being able to see your face! Me, on the other hand? I think it's amusing to run around Daath with it on to confuse the crap out of people. Now, how many gels did you and Asch end up spending on me in the Zao Ruins?"

Sync blinked at that, as if he's surprised by her comments. Finally he sighed, "Apparently Asch has decided to learn healing artes. He healed you, and I gave you two of my lemon gels."

Valeria's brain came to a full stop and had to backtrack to make sure she heard that right, "Seriously? Mr. I-Hate-Learning-From-Healers has decided to learn healing artes all of a sudden?"

"I asked the same thing, he told me it was because of your dumb ass always getting injured when you're around Daath. Something I, for one, can remember as well!"

Valeria thought back to the last time she was in Daath, and she had a feeling Sync was remembering it as well. It had been a month or so before she'd run into him in Chesedonia before getting caught by Jade, and Asch had been there at the same time as well. The two Generals had both been heading toward Daath Bay to go on separate missions when Valeria and Nyla had come upon them, both bleeding from the attacks they'd fended off from the creatures in Aramis Spring, having been ambushed by a large number during training.

Who'd've thought that the creatures were sick of the girl and her Arka attacking their brethren all the time?

Both of them had a dozen types of injuries, and both Asch and Sync had flipped when seeing the two of them like that. Well, not flipped per say, but they hadn't been happy.

Huh, so all it took was a dozen or so injuries at one time to make the grumpy redhead learn healing artes? If she knew that before, she might've tried to get him to learn sooner.

"Anyway, I answered your question! Give me my mask; I have a job to do!"

Valeria hadn't realized she was still holding it. Frowning once more, she finally relented and gave Sync back his mask, then realized something else. "You're going after Jade's group, aren't you?"

"You gonna stop me?"

Taking that answer as a yes, Valeria shrugged. "Nope. I'm mad at Jade right now, but I need a ride to Kaitzur, so as long as you don't destroy the boat, I don't care what you do."

Sync tilted his head at her but decided to take her word for it, since he turned and ran off in the next instance, leaving the girl and Arka in the alleyway.

After he left, Valeria looked at the parchments in her hand and smirked. That Ant Lion Man had helped her. Not only did the papers hold information on people, but also on a couple of locations directly related to the Underworld that normal people had no clue about, and that very few Knowns would know about either. Only Pieces would be going to these places, which meant that eventually Valeria would need to check them out as well.

But first, she had to make her way to the Malkuth docks and pray that she could catch up with Jade's group before they departed.

Seeing as she and Nyla needed to restock on items, Valeria knew that she couldn't just rush right to the consulate. So, praying that she had enough time, she'd stopped at a couple of shops, making sure to replenish her spices. Jade's group took most of her good ones, and the vegetables that hadn't been eaten had gone bad while in the desert heat.

She was at the fruit stall about to hand her money to the merchant, when someone grabbed her arm and kept her from paying the guy. Valeria was about to snap at the person until she realized who it was.

"This little lady's purchase is on me."

Valeria grinned at York, even as she shook her hand free of him, moving back an inch. The merchant looked between the two of them and nodded, moving on to go and speak to another person who seemed to be interested in his wares. Even if it was questionable how York had earned the money to pay for it, she still wasn't going to refuse the offer.

York gestured for Valeria to lead the way after she placed her purchase in Nyla's wing pack. "Thanks, York, though you didn't have to do that."

He chuckled, "Sure I did, had to repay that last time I saw you in Grand Chokmah, didn't I?"

She nodded slightly before tilting her head. "So which of the Generals hired you guys to take Ion in Baticul?"

"I forgot, Noir mentioned she saw you there. How did you get here, if I may ask?"

Valeria raised an eyebrow and he held his hand up. "Right, answer for answer. Well we originally weren't going to take this job, since Noir thought one of the Slavers would have an easier time of it. Until we found out who it was we were after. It was actually an Oracle Soldier who found us, we'd gotten careless in our last job, he took us in to his boss and that boss asked us if we'd like the job."

Valeria snorted, "I take it that you guys mainly took the job to get off the hook?"

York nodded. "That and Noir pretty much figured that if we left this one alone, we'd be asking for the wrong kind of trouble when it came out that we could've handled it in the ways the Slavers wouldn't bother."

"Huh, so you guys actually try and help alleviate the Slavers. Who knew?"

York had a hurt look on his face for a single instant before he realized she was joking. "Noir would've—"

Valeria cut him off, knowing what he was about to say, she knew better than to touch that with a ten foot pole. "You never did tell me which Oracle Knight hired you."

"Right! The God-General Asch the Bloody."

Valeria stumbled at that, not really expecting that for an answer. Asch never really seemed like he would deal with anything in the Underworld, seeing as he still gave a shit about his country and wouldn't likely be too happy with the revelation that the Underworld dealt there as well. On the other hand, he did know that sometimes you have to do some bad things to help a whole lot of people…

"So far as I know, he doesn't know of the Underworld," York assured her, seeing the look on her face.

Valeria blinked, nodded and turned to look at the docks, they'd walked a decent amount of the way while they'd been talking. "I keep forgetting you guys make names for yourselves within and outside of the community."

"Yeah, sometimes it's helpful, sometimes not. Anyway, how did you get back to Chesedonia?"

"I arrived with Jade's group, through the desert."

It was York's turn to nearly fall over. "But that's the desert!"

"Yep."

"You're horrible in the desert!"

"Yep, I wasn't happy." Valeria shook her head. "Hey, so if you're helping Asch, are you stuck on the Tartarus?"

York shook his head. "We're getting off here, have a couple of other things we're up to at the moment ,and we told Asch before accepting his job. If he needs us though, we'll likely work with him again."

Valeria hummed, glancing over towards the consulate. "Well I don't want you to get caught, so I'll leave you here. Thanks for the food, by the way."

"Not a problem! You be careful now, Noir won't like it if you injure yourself again. She did hear about the ferry, and she wasn't happy," York commented, making a bow. He smirked one last time at her before sauntering away.

Valeria shook her head before leading Nyla to the front of the Consulate. Right as the two got there, the door was opened from the inside and out came Jade with Luke on his heels. The redhead appeared to be half carrying, half dragging Guy. Nyla immediately noticed this and padded over to the two after sharing a look with Valeria. The Arka growled lowly and nudged the redhead softly to take over carrying Guy.

"What happened to him?" Valeria asked, walking behind them next to Jade.

Jade raised an eyebrow at her, eyes flicking briefly to the consulate before he sighed. That made the blonde grin since it meant that there wasn't anyone inside who was able to collect her. "What are you doing here? I thought you'd escaped somewhere."

It bothered her that Jade completely ignored her question, so instead she fell back to walk next to Ion, who seemed lost in thought for the moment and didn't notice her sudden appearance, if his shocked look and how he jumped a little when she stuck a hand in front of his face said anything.

"Ion, what happened to Guy?"

"I'm a little concerned… Guy seems to have been affected by a curse slot…" Seeing the look on Valeria's face, he apparently mistook it for confusion. "It's a type of—"

"Daathic Fonic Arte, I know." She remembered it alright, one of the times she and Sync had been out and about they'd run into some monsters that ganged up on them. In the end Sync had had to use one of his unique artes and that had brought a bundle of questions from Valeria, and since she'd been persistent about it, he'd had to explain a couple more artes that were unique to him.

And Ion.

"You know?" Ion's green eyes grew even more confused. "How do you know about Daathic Fonic Artes?"

Knowing she couldn't tell her real reason and since she figured that Jade likely knew about them since the bastard knew everything, she lied. "You do realize I grew up around Jade, right? Dist also never shuts up, and apparently he knows a few things as well."

Ion seemed to believe that answer, and began telling her about how Guy had reacted while in the consulate. Valeria listened, but she was also thinking about a few other things. She had a feeling she knew how Sync had managed to place the curse slot, but she wasn't sure why. From what she remembered him telling her, curse slots aren't always reliable. They could control a person, but that person would fight it the entire time, and if Sync placed it where she thought he did, there wasn't much strength behind it, especially when hastily done.

It also required there to be an issue that the user could tap into… So unless there's an unresolved problem between two people, a curse slot couldn't normally be used to attack someone.

Which begged the question, what did Guy have against Luke for Sync to tap into?

Ion finished explaining what happened to the blonde, and then hurried to catch up to Anise. Valeria was left in her thoughts before Natalia approached her.

"Jade informed us that you had run off, and that you weren't likely to return, what changed your mind?"

Valeria knew the others were probably surprised that she'd come back, yet it still was amusing that it was the princess talking to her, since they hadn't really gotten off to a good start. They didn't talk all that much to get an opinion of each other, and the few exchanges they did have didn't go very well. "I only went to get supplies - had a feeling Jade wouldn't let me leave for too long anyway. He'd probably just send someone to come collect me and bring me to him, it's happened before."

If Natalia thought that was odd, she didn't say anything about it. Instead she nodded and then moved to help Luke with Guy, offering to heal the blond if need be. Valeria was now left with Jade, and the four eyed jerk was watching her carefully. "What's the real reason you came back, Valeria? We both know there was no way for me to collect you with the time restraint on us."

Time restraint, huh?

"No reason, just bored," she lied, walking beyond him and toward the back of the ship so she could be near the water. Right as she laid down and curled up, the others began to join her. Nyla padded over to her, leading Valeria to believe that Guy was doing better. When she looked at him next, he'd actually gotten some color back in his face, and seemed to be looking healthier as they got further and further from shore.

As the others talked about how Sync could be causing the issue, Jade joined them with some annoying news.

It was going to be a while before they could get to Kaitzur Naval Port.

The boat ride there was apparently going to take them the rest of the night, so everyone went off to do their own thing. Valeria and Nyla remained where they were; the two of them liked both the breeze from the ocean as well as the occasional spray of sea water that came over the sides of the railing.

The blonde fonist was also looking over the letter she'd been given, and was trying to figure out where her destination was. She was about to give up on it when she recalled something that Guy had mentioned one night while he'd been on watch and she hadn't wanted to fall asleep, having not come to trust any of them at that time.

About to head off to find the swordsman, she was relieved when he and Luke suddenly came back out to the deck with their swords, looking ready to get some practice in. "Hey guys! Can I ask a question?"

Luke frowned, seemingly annoyed with her timing, "Can't it wait?"

Valeria knew that if she let this slide, the redhead would probably take Guy away before she could ask anything. Also she wasn't sure if Jade would come looking for any of them, so no, she wouldn't let it slide. "How about this: you and Guy answer my questions, and Nyla and I will train with you. It'll give you a few more opponents to go against."

Luke seemed to weigh this is his head while Guy had an amused look on his face, like he knew Valeria was just baiting the noble, which she was. "Fine! But make it quick!"

Shrugging, Valeria motioned them a little bit closer and pulled out the paper she'd drawn a hastily inaccurate map on. Normally she didn't really have a need for a map, she just chose a direction and went that way with Nyla. Plus she had a lot of the Malkuth territory memorized anyway, so it was just because she was in Kimlascan territory that she was lost. Well, the area south of Kaitzur was actually the only one she normally avoided, as there was no need to bother with places that held no interest to her.

"I've been trying to map things out, since that way I can keep track of where we go, any chance you can help me with my map? I was wondering of you could maybe point out where Kaitzur should be, and any other locations that are on this side of the border?"

Luke looked annoyed, but the blond did point out where Kaitzur was and then tilted his head to ponder the mountain range a bit. Eventually, he indicated where he says he believed Deo Pass would be, "If I remember correctly, that's the gist of it."

Valeria frowned. She was disappointed, seeing as she'd been attempting to use this as a way to get him to tell her the location of Choral Castle without making it seem like she was heading there. If she had her way, Nyla and her would be the first ones off the boat and out of the port as soon as the ship docked. But if Jade somehow found out she wanted to go to there…

She sighed softly, neither one of the boys realizing she had done so. Making a humming noise, she tilted her head as if suddenly remembering something, "I remember you telling me that before you guys got to Chesedonia and met me, you'd gone to a place called Choral Castle. Right?"

Guy brought his hand to his chin, deep in thought, "I forgot about that conversation, but yeah ,we went to Choral Castle. Why?"

Valeria pointed at her poorly drawn map, "I want my map to be partially full, I'll be filling in a lot of it while we travel. But I don't know if we're going to be going to Choral Castle, so I thought I'd ask you."

The blond raised an eyebrow at her, but shrugged. Pointing along the map, he traced the road she'd drawn up a little before veering his finger to the right and led it through the valley between mountains and indicated the point at the peninsula. "This is the road to the castle, it would probably be quicker to go there if you cut through the woods, but you risk the chance of running into monsters and bandits."

It was Valeria's turn to raise an eyebrow at him, the way he said it made it seem like he knew she wasn't asking just to further her knowledge of the Kimlascan area.

Smart of him.

She made a production of adding the others to her map, more so than Choral Castle. Still she had a feeling that the blond didn't believe in her halfhearted attempt to learn the other locations. Luckily, she was saved from his questioning, since Luke had grown bored by that point and dragged Guy away, muttering that it wasn't worth having other fighters if it was going to take this long. That made Valeria chuckle, since they had pretty much been done by then.

Still, the redhead saved her from having to make an effort to train with the two swordsmen. Instead she spent the rest of her time looking over the map she'd drawn.

In the morning, she was jolted awake by a boot hitting her in the side. Without thinking, she had a knife out in a flash, held in front of her and protectively against herself, ready to swipe in a second's notice. When she finally realized who'd woken her up, Valeria sighed and put the weapon away, growling under her breath about annoying Colonels who didn't understand the need for sleep.

"What's your interest in Choral Castle, Valeria?"

Damn it! Guy must've told Jade she'd been asking about it! Now she knew not to talk to him when she wanted something…

"I've been trying to map out the areas that I go to, but I wanted to be thorough even if I actually couldn't get there."

"Nice try, you have no interest in Kimlasca, save for possibly Belkend."

That'd teach her to try and outwit Jade when she first woke up… It normally didn't end well even when she had been up all day, let alone when she first wakes up. Jade was staring at her. His eyes appeared normal, if judged by other standards. She knew he was actually analyzing her to see if she would give away her reason for looking into Choral Castle. If she didn't, he probably wouldn't let her leave his sight until absolutely necessary.

If she did? Who knew with him. He might let her go, though that was unlikely, considering he probably didn't feel comfortable leaving her in Kimlascan territory without an escort.

Why did he have to be paranoid?

Thinking back on who else normally was around her, she answered her own questions mentally. Sighing, she gazed back at Jade with a bored look. "I was asked to go and collect something from there. That's all. I plan on coming along with you all towards Akzeriuth after I'm done with it, so you won't have to worry too much."

Jade continued to stare at her, saying nothing for a moment before he shook his head, "I can't have you going off into Kimlascan territory alone."

Typical… "Be that as it may, I'm going there whether you like it or not. I told them I'd collect for them, and I don't like breaking my word. Besides, I'm not alone; I'll have Nyla with me."

Jade gave her another look, yet didn't say anything more. Instead, he walked off toward the front of the ship. Valeria didn't trust that one bit, not that she was able to do anything about it. For now, she needed to get ready. After asking Nyla to stand, she quickly stripped out of her shirt and pants, pulling out nearly the same type of clothes, except there were more cuts on the new shirt than the first one. Valeria put them on and stashed her dirty ones away. She really needed to do laundry sometime…

The others met up in front of the ship; disembarking together, they slowly made their way toward the entrance of the port. Valeria noted that Jade stuck pretty close to her, almost making it seem like he was trying to make sure she couldn't take off on Nyla.

Sure enough, the moment they got to the edge of the port town, he grabbed her arm and told the group to stop. Everyone seemed surprised, since it wasn't usually the Colonel who had them stopping for any reason, except maybe to allow Ion to rest.

"We need to make a side stop somewhere before we can head further toward Akzeriuth."

"Whaaat?! But Master Van is already so far ahead of us!"

Jade turned his gaze toward Luke, red eyes boring into the noble, "I understand that. However, this needs to be done as soon as possible, and we can spare a little bit of time before we head to help Commandant Grants."

Luke looked like he was about to complain once more until Valeria jerked away from Jade and rounded on him, "What are you getting at? Why do you care?"

Those red eyes gleamed at her through the glasses on the smartass's face. "I have something I'd like to check out as well."

Tear looked uncomfortable, "Are you sure we can spare this time, Colonel?"

Jade nodded, "As long as we hurry, now let's go."

"Go where?" Guy questioned.

"Choral Castle."

* * *

**Anyone know what's going on in the next chapter? Anyone?**

**Cyber chocolate chip cookie to those who figure it out!**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N:**

**RK: HAPPY NEW YEAR!**

**Well, this definitely took MUCH longer than I would've liked, and I completely apologize for that! Between my schooling, jobs and having to rewrite some of this, especially now that Mara's been kidnapped by her job and is being held for ransom! Just kidding, well, kinda. She's going to be MIA for awhile, but don't worry! We've plotted out stuff and I should be able to write some more before my break is over!**

**I also wanted to say thank you, and seriously THANKS to our amazing beta reader IHaveNoIdea8, for putting up with Mara and I, mostly me. **

**Anyway, without further ado! Chapter 9!**

* * *

Valeria wasn't entirely sure how he'd managed it, but Jade had talked the Count in charge of Kaitzur into allowing them to use some carriages, which would help their group cut down the time it took to travel. So after making sure everyone would fit into just two carriages, they set off to Choral Castle.

It still took them a bit longer than they would've expected, but a day and a half later they'd made it to the castle, and Valeria and Nyla were the first two to pile out of the carriages.

"I've said it before, I'll say it again! I. Hate. Carriages!" Valeria hissed, rubbing her hands along her arms to help steady herself. She would admit, if the carriages hadn't been filled completely, she might've been fine. However, since they had been completely full, it had almost caused her to panic. Actually, had Nyla not occasionally nudged her leg, she likely would've panicked badly.

Nyla came over and rubbed her head against Valeria, which helped her get calmer as the others gathered around to discuss the reason they'd come.

"Jade, what are we doing here?"

The Colonel turned to look at Valeria. "Valeria will explain."

All eyes locked on her, and the girl fought to keep from strangling the jerk who'd managed to cause her calm to evaporate seconds after she'd gotten herself under control. "We're looking for the computer terminals connected to the fon machine, there's information on them that needs to be downloaded."

Tear frowned. "I thought Dist had deleted the information on the machines when they'd been here last."

Valeria shook her head. "According to the information I have, that isn't the case. Or at least the data I need is still on there. Either way, I need access to the fon machines here."

"Can we hurry this up!? We need to catch up to Master Van!"

Valeria kept the urge to punch Luke under control, but just barely. It was beginning to annoy her how much the red head kept complaining about wanting to catch up to Van. So it was probably lucky for both of them that he hadn't been in the same carriage as her, otherwise one of them might not have come out of the transport alive.

And to be brutally honest, Valeria wouldn't be the one who was dead.

"Sure, we can hurry up; just lead me to where the machines are," Valeria grit out, taking a deep breathe to prevent herself from doing something she wouldn't really regret.

The group entered the castle, and Valeria watched in amusement as some of the group kept looking around constantly. She knew they were keeping on guard but she actually doubted that anything would attack them here. Or she thought that until she noticed the amount of monsters inside the building. How were there so many?!

"Is it me, or are there more monsters around here this time?" Guy commented.

"Yes, it does appear that there are more creatures around," Tear agreed, her eyes wandering around the upper areas of the castle.

Valeria hadn't been there before, but even she was surprised about the amount of monsters that had condensed there. While she looked around, she noticed something that made her pause, causing Anise to run into her. The Guardian glared at Valeria, but the blonde wasn't worried about that. Instead, she stepped aside and went over to check out what had caught her interest. In the center of the floor, a white line had been drawn - no, Valeria realized the white line had been carved into the stone floor of the castle to form a medium-sized circle.

Placing her hand on the line, Valeria felt the pulse of a strong fonic arte and her eyes suddenly started swimming. Standing, she struggled so she wouldn't stumble backwards, but only managed to stay upright because Nyla had her snout against the girl's back. Shaking her head, Valeria walked forward two steps so that she was actually within the circle.

And had to keep herself from gasping.

It was as if she'd entered another dimension. Nothing really seemed all that different, except for the fact that she could no longer see any of the others, who hadn't even been that far away, and there was now a sword within the center of the circle.

A sword she swore hadn't been there before.

Right as she was circling the sword, a massive wave of energy suddenly slammed into Valeria, dark energy that kept pushing against the sides of the circle. Blinking slowly, the fourth fonist realized that the circle was indeed what she'd thought it was; a strong sixth fonon barrier that was helping to keep the massive amounts of first fonons from getting out.

Backpedaling, Valeria left the barrier, leading her to the conclusion that the barrier had been made especially for the sword. She also realized that the sword was the reason for the massive amounts of monsters roaming around.

"Valeria!"

The girl turned to see Jade and Tear rushing over to her. Jade looked irritated, and Tear was the one to speak, "You just disappeared; we thought you were right behind us when we got down to the fon machines."

Valeria blinked and looked back at the circle, looking directly in the center where she knew the sword was supposed to be. It wasn't there, at least not to their eyes since the barrier seemed to keep it locked up. But she knew it was there. And that if it remained in there for too much longer, the energy would probably backlash and destroy the barrier and summon even more monsters.

They might have to take care of it, but first she needed to get her main task handled. So instead of listening to Jade and Tear tell her off for 'getting lost', she began to head in the direction they'd run from. The path eventually led down to where the others were located and she watched in amusement as Anise attempted to try and use one of the machines.

"You do realize that Dist put all sorts of traps in his coding, right?" The Guardian jumped away as Valeria, Nyla, and the other two caught up.

At the bottom of the stairs Valeria hesitated, flicking her eyes over the terminals that were still functional. Coming to the conclusion that Dist's MO would be the same no matter what, she padded past the first few fon machines set up and meandered toward the back. In the other two locations that she'd been in with Dist, he'd told her that he kept his data storage machine the furthest away from his test machines as well as the ones that formed artes, just in case something went wrong. Normally she wouldn't credit Dist to be that smart, seeing as half of his machines had malfunctioned in the past and he had a lot of idiotic moments, but she supposed something had happened to his data storages before, which made him change how things were.

She felt more than saw Jade come to stand behind her as she booted the machine up and started delving further into the information there. It actually bothered her, since she was finding this information for someone else and he knew that, yet had decided to come over. Jade eyed her carefully for a moment before wandering back toward one of the other machines, surprising Valeria.

It took her about ten minutes to break through the coding Dist had put on the project labeled 'Origin'. It seemed to be the most protected out of the bunches of other projects on the machine, but she managed to get it. That, as well as a number of other detailed files were put onto the disk that had been given to her, and since she'd gone to the trouble of coming here for it, she made a copy of it for a spare fon disk that was in her bag already. Even if she didn't understand any of it, it might be useful later on.

After thinking about it for a few seconds, she also decided to be nice and made another condensed version for Jade. She kept out two of the projects since she doubted the Limiter wanted the Colonel to know about them.

Turning off the system, she turned around to see everyone staring at her in confusion. Guy actually seemed impressed by her knowledge while the others just seemed like they hadn't expected her to know a lot about fon tech. Sighing, Valeria ran a hand through the few strands of hair loose from her bun. "You people do realize I grew up around Jade, right? Fon tech kind of happens when dealing with him."

"Valeria! Don't blame this all on me!" Jade sounded hurt. "Let's not forget that you're the one who knows Dist's passwords. You seem to have learned more from him."

She didn't buy the hurt tone one bit, and tossed the third fon disk to him. "I shouldn't have even made that for you, you four-eyed bastard…"

Ignoring the bastard's smug look, Valeria walked back toward the stairs, wondering how she should approach the sword. Something in the back of her mind had her looking at the note again, letting her gaze fall on the last part of the letter. The Limiter basically stated that she wanted Valeria to handle the thing, but what she didn't say was why.

As they reached the circle, she asked the others to stop and Tear was the first to notice the circle in the ground. "That wasn't there the last time we were here…"

Valeria nodded. "Yeah, I don't believe it was. It was left here by a particular fonist who specializes in barriers. Inside the barrier is a really strong presence that I had been checking out when I'd left you all earlier. If I'm right, then that thing in there is what caused the massive amounts of monsters to gather here."

Jade's gaze turned sharp and he walked toward the barrier. Valeria sighed and walked in with him, feeling the sudden push of first fonons against her the moment she reached the other side. Jade was crouched next to the blade when she finally got her bearings, so Valeria joined him. Right as she reached it, a deep voice resonated in her head.

_"I am obsession… A lost soul, trapped by a desire unfulfilled… A rusted blade… Have you the power I desire…? The strength to free me? If you do, turn that strength against me."_ The voice rumbled then, seeming to fill with more power. _"Four is the number I desire, humans to turn against me. Bring your strength and will… Show me the strength of your skill…"_

The voice faded then, leaving Valeria to stumble back again. She looked at Jade, who didn't appear to have heard the voice. Frowning, she grabbed him and drug him back out to the others.

"You both are alright!" Ion cried out in surprise. Apparently they had disappeared like she had before…

Valeria nodded. "So… I also have another job here… I was asked to take care of this thing within the barrier. But, um… I don't think I can fight it alone."

Guy tilted his head. "I'm not sure what you're talking about, but I'll be happy to help."

She nodded again. "Thanks, but first I have to mention, this thing has some sentience, apparently. And it says that only four humans may participate in the fight. So since I was requested to handle this, I'll be fighting it. I'd like a swordsman, so Guy's perfect, but I would also appreciate a fonist," she gave a pointed look at Jade, who appeared to want to face the thing anyway. "And a healer, who would most likely be focusing on healing only, and staying out of the fight."

Tear and Natalia exchanged looks before the melodist nodded. "I'll help. Natalia hasn't had many battles to gain experience, so if you believe it's going to be a difficult battle, I should probably assist you."

Valeria agreed and looked at Anise, Luke and Natalia. "If you guys would help keep the other monsters away from us, that'd be appreciated. I have a feeling that the moment I take down this barrier, the other creatures here will zero in on us."

Luke scowled. "I still don't see the point in this!"

Natalia turned to Luke, pointing a finger in his direction. "If this thing brought all these monsters here, just imagine if it manages to travel to another location. Civilians could be in danger! As royals, it is our duty to help in situations such as these!"

The red head groaned, "Fine, fine! Just shut up already!"

Valeria took that to mean he would help, so she turned to look around and noticed something near the door. It was funny, since she hadn't thought the Limiter would be so thorough. "Fon Master, please go stand within that barrier over there, it should protect you while we all fight."

Ion noticed what she had and nodded, running over to get within the extra sixth fonon barrier, which sealed him in something similar to what the sword was within. That appeared to make Anise feel a little bit better, since she'd had a worried look on her face.

Finally, the blonde looked at the first circle, kneeling down to run her fingers through the fonons that made up the barrier. It hurt slightly, since she wasn't able to actually manipulate sixth fonons, but after she added fourth fonons to the mix, the barrier shattered and the energy that had built up in the barrier suddenly shot out, allowing the sword to alter its form and become something else entirely.

"I have been waiting for this… Let us see if you have the power to defeat me…" The voice suddenly spoke, coming from the mouth of the creature it had become.

Valeria grinned; this was going to be fun.

**. . .**

Jade still wasn't sure why he'd allowed Valeria to get away with this side trip. He knew that the situation in Akzeriuth was getting more and more dire the longer they took to get there, but he also knew that there was no way he could allow Valeria to run around unwatched while in Kimlascan territory. If she got into trouble the nobles in Malkuth could very well get involved in the situation, and that could lead to a lot more issues than they wanted at the moment - especially when the Emperor was trying to push for peace.

Plus, Jade had realized that Dist usually kept a lot of information in one place, which was one of his many faults. So he was hopeful that this little side venture would bear some fruit on some of the projects that Dist had a hand in throughout the years, especially when some of those projects had something to do with fomicry.

He actually had to hand it to Valeria, since it appeared that she had found quite a bit of information, but whether or not any of this would be of use to him would remain to be seen. Not to mention they would need to find somewhere that they would be able to transfer the data from the fon discs to paper so that he would be able to read.

Beyond his surprise of Valeria managing to find some information Dist had forgotten to delete, he had to admit that the creature they were standing against now was...interesting to say the least. The sword the creature wielded had given off a negative wave of fonons, and when Valeria mentioned that it had spoken to her...well, it had made his interest in the sword peak, if only enough so that he wanted to see what sort of being the sword contained.

But facing it now, he actually didn't want to believe what he was seeing, and that was saying something, as it normally took a lot to catch him off guard. The creature they faced wielded two swords and had multiple arms without swords that kept swiping at them as they put distance between themselves and the creature.

After the initial shock of seeing the creature rise from the ground, the blade wielders ran into action. Guy went forward, using his sword to bat away the limbs that didn't hold swords. Right as he was close enough to strike, one of the arms wielding a sword caught him off guard, swinging in from his left and forcing him to take a hit on his arm rather than the more dangerous one that it had been aiming for.

As he dropped back to be healed by Tear, Valeria had dodged under the same sword that had initially injured Guy and drove a knife through the creature's leg.

Jade heard her curse as she rolled under another strike that had been aimed for her head. She got out of the way just in time to miss being hit by his stalagmite and circled around the creature as Guy ran at it again, having been attended to by Tear.

Valeria dropped back by Jade and looked at him with an annoyed expression. "Apparently my current knives aren't helpful…"

Her tone had him chuckling as he readied another arte, calling to Guy right as he released the splash on the dark being, Valeria releasing her own, stronger, version of the same arte. Jade had to admit, he always forgot about how well she worked with the fourth fonon.

Even if his fon slots hadn't been sealed, it might have been a struggle for his fourth fonic artes to match up to the level that hers were. It more or less had something to do with the fact that she was a pure fourth fonist; it seemed to amplify her fonic artes, adding something to make them stronger than normal artes.

Of course, it meant that she couldn't use any other type of fonon. If being able to use multiple types of fonons meant that their attacks were slightly weaker than that of a pure fonist's artes, Jade was willing to pay the price. After all, even with his fon slots sealed, his artes were nothing to scoff at, and being able to use almost all the different types of fonons meant he had less disadvantages to worry about.

Seeing the creature coming toward him, Jade ducked to the side, narrowly avoiding a strike intended for him as Valeria rushed forward to meet the creature's attack full on, parrying with her knives. That allowed Jade the time to get away and begin casting another arte, though he could hear the blonde girl's cursing, so she had likely gained a wound from the act.

As Jade was about to release his arte, a form darted past him and tackled the dark creature, releasing its hold over Valeria and knocking it a safe distance from the girl, who fell to the ground clutching her side.

Jade used the distance to his advantage and released a stalagmite again, which soon turned into eruption thanks to the field of fonons that Tear had swiftly laid out for him. The arte seemed to overtake the creature for a moment, yet that was short-lived, as it released another dark wave filled with first fonons to blow away the remnants of his attack.

Valeria stood unsteadily on her feet as Tear came over to heal her, the two being protected by Nyla, who had been the one to knock into the creature. Seeing as it didn't say or do anything, Jade assumed the creature only limited the amount of humans that participated and didn't seem all that bothered by the appearance of the Arka.

Once it was clear that Tear had healed the wound on Valeria, Nyla ran at the creature, meeting up with Guy and tag teaming their attacks, blocking occasionally or just completely dodging. Valeria and Tear made their way to Jade, wanting to get out of the line of fire.

"This thing is beginning to annoy me…. Kind of like you, Jade!" Valeria mumbled, reaching into her leg pouch and pulling out a handful of knives.

Jade smirked at her annoyance, especially when it was usually the other way around since she tended to annoy her opponents more often than not. He raised an eyebrow when she fingered the blades in her hand before throwing them at the creature. A burst of fourth fonons surrounded them then jumped towards the creature.

Right on impact, frost exploded around the knives and coated the wounds the entity had received in ice, spreading slightly around the wound as if to paint a target.

Guy took notice and aimed a precise void tempest right next to the knives that were still embedded in the creature then dropped back, allowing Nyla to follow up with a clawed strike on the same location.

The force of all three attacks knocked the creature back a few steps, yet it also seemed to anger it. It succeeded in smacking both front line fighters back, sending Guy into a wall and Nyla crashing through a statue.

Valeria cried out but didn't move and allowed Tear to rush over to heal the two. Instead, she sighed and dropped into a familiar stance before glancing at Jade. "Tag team a Blessed Drop, hurry!"

She began casting then, and he paused when he felt the amount of fourth fonons suddenly around them. It still surprised him how well they seemed to respond to her. Shaking his head, he sighed and shifted to a different stance than hers to start casting Splash.

Both artes formed at the same time, falling on the fiendish thing moments before it reached where Tear was healing the others. He had to admit that the damage his splash had done seemed to be a bit more powerful than normal, but that could very well be due to the influence of the fonons in the air from Valeria's Blessed Drops.

He didn't have time to notice much more than the creature falling over before he got distracted by Valeria, the blonde having shoved him.

"What the hell?! Why didn't you tag team?!"

"Ah, see, I'm unable to use Blessed Drop at the moment."

"What?!"

"Valeria, now is not the time…"

The girl in question kept glaring at him until he called her name again. She finally leapt back right as the creature descended on her former spot, apparently figuring out that out of the whole group, Valeria's artes were the strongest and therefore more of an issue. How much sentience did this creature have?

Luckily, now the two swords were embedded in the ground, which made it easier for the newly healed Guy and Nyla to get a few hits on it before it had recovered enough to withdraw its blades.

Yet, Valeria hadn't moved during that brief moment and was glaring at Jade, clearly expecting an answer.

"My fon slots have been sealed. I'll explain after the battle, now use another blessed drops!"

Apparently she hadn't been expecting that, but had accepted the hurried explanation for the moment and moved further back to cast another arte.

Yet as Jade moved to block the next attack from the creature, he realized that he actually didn't recognize the fonic circle she was using.

"This I summon, icy breath cover my enemies to sleep forever within my hateful ice." Jade moved out of the way, still unsure of the arte until it began to form. Ice began to build around the creature's feet before arching upwards towards its head. The ice completely encased the being right as Valeria's eyes opened and she snapped her fingers together. "Frigid Coffin!"

The ice surrounding the being cracked and shattered and an inhuman shriek was heard as the arte dissipated, still leaving a cold chill in its wake. The being once again turned its anger towards Valeria, knowing she had been the one to cast the arte.

Guy circled around the side of it, ducking around a number of its limbs and began to slice into the creature's sides, being careful to move around the swinging limbs, leaping back any time Valeria or Jade was about to cast an arte.

By this time, the creature decided to go for the casters, ignoring the close range fighters in favor of swinging its swords wildly. It kept everyone from moving as they struggled to guard or shift just enough to make the damage be lessened.

Tear had moved forward as well, singing a couple of her hymns as well as using a few strike artes, though she'd had to move back once again with Guy once the swordsman had been struck in the chest, sending him flying through the air and skidding back to hit the wall hard, if the sound was any indication.

After the assault from the creature's blades, everyone was bleeding, so Valeria had once again moved closer to Jade. She kept still, as if thinking before she ordered another splash from him. Jade felt his reserves and shook his head.

He knew he was running low on energy, so instead he ran into the front lines, thrusting his spear into a sonic spear arte before ducking back under the being's arms, trying not to allow himself to be hit as well.

This went on for another ten minutes or so. Strike. Strike. Block. Dodge Valeria's arte. Move back to be healed by Tear. Then repeat it all over again.

Luckily, Valeria had the chance to catch the creature off guard with another frigid coffin, causing the creature to back away for the moment. Jade briefly wondered when Valeria learned the arte, since he was sure she hadn't known it right before he left Grand Chokmah.

While it was away, Tear rushed to heal the numerous wounds that Jade had gotten during his brief time on the front lines, pausing to heal the wounds Valeria had gotten as well once the blonde joined them.

The girl in question handed over an orange gel to Jade and a pineapple to Tear, ingesting one of them herself as she watched Nyla and Guy once again teaming up to give the casters a moment to collect themselves.

"This is really getting us nowhere…" Valeria breathed, taking a moment to feed another gel into her body.

"How many more pineapple gels do you have?"

Valeria made a face at Jade. "Not as many as I'd like. You can have one or two if you need."

Jade shook his head, readying his casting stance, since the creature had made its way past the swordsman and Arka towards them.

Valeria pulled out another set of knives, tapping them against one another, a thoughtful look on her face before she shook her head. "Too soon…"

She moved away then, heading to the other side of their little battlefield right as another, stronger, wave of first fonons suddenly burst from the creature, heading directly for the blonde fonist. Jade jerked forward, yet he realized he couldn't move as he wasn't finished casting.

"Valeria!"

The girl looked up right as something flew into her from her back side, saving her from the blast from the front by knocking her over, though the move caused her to drop both knives she'd been holding. Her scream of pain echoed around them as she twisted away from the wolf that had leapt at her.

She used the knives that had fallen next to her to slit the things throat as it made to try and bite her and stood unsteadily, the blood dripping from her back telling him she had been wounded.

But with the creature between her and Tear, she wasn't going to be healed until they could clear a path.

Her eyes glanced behind her for a moment and she narrowed them. "Luke! Keep them away from us!"

It was at that moment that Nyla, who had crept away and up to the second level of the castle, leapt from the top of the stairs to collide with the creature.

The Arka knocked the creature over, but not before it had landed a direct slice to Nyla's underside.

The yowl of pain from the Arka was covered the moment Valeria seemed to take into account what had happened to her friend. Jade watched in shock as the blonde fonist suddenly thrust her hand in the direction of the creature and a sudden burst of fourth fonons filled the air, visibly swirling around the dark being.

_"Sitis tenebrarum, Præcepique minus!"_

The voice he heard from her surprised him, especially with the amount of energy that seemed to flow from it. And it took a moment for him to actually translate what she'd said, he hadn't actually known she was able to speak Ancient Ispanian. Read it, sure but never had she spoken aloud using the language.

Sitis tenebrarum, Præcepique minus. The rough meaning: being of darkness, I command your purification.

When, exactly, had Valeria learned to use purifying artes?

His question seemed to not matter in the next instant since the fonons from the girl suddenly stopped and shattered, like ice, taking most of the presence with it.

The remainder formed in the sound of an evil laugh. _"Finally! A worthy challenge, I await our next meeting with anticipation!"_

With that, the presence disappeared completely and both Valeria and Nyla collapsed to the ground. Jade looked at Nyla, then Valeria. Seeing as Nyla seemed the most damage he ordered Tear to tend to the pet while he ran to Valeria, calling out for Natalia as he did so.

Guy caught up to him right as he made it to Valeria, commenting that he would go and make sure none of the remaining creatures around would come near them while they took care of the injuries; an interesting offer since Jade could see at least three unhealed injuries on the blond himself.

It took a few minutes, but Natalia came over, beginning to heal the injuries on Valeria's back as fast as she was able. Not that Jade was surprised; this was probably the first instance in which the princess was healing someone this wounded without a teacher watching over.

Eventually, everyone began to gather around.

"It seems like all the other monsters who had been drawn to this place began to wander away as soon as that other creature was taken care of," Guy muttered, moving to sit down next to Luke, who also collapsed as soon as the news had been revealed.

The red head frowned. "What was that, exactly?"

"It sure was a lot stronger than the other monsters around here," Guy commented.

"It's fonons felt odd... different from other monsters," Tear added, her focus still on the Arka she was healing.

"Different...? You don't mean... a ghost or something?"

"A ghost? No, it didn't look ectoplasmic or anything," Guy told Luke, tapping his chin thoughtfully.

"No, not like a 'normal monster' ghost! Like a 'roaming spirit of the dead' ghost."

Guy laughed, "Oh, that kind of ghost. You can't actually believe they exist? Besides –"

"It wasn't a ghost, not what you'd believe it would be," Valeria interrupted, waking up after Natalia finished healing her. The girl's gaze moved from them to where the sword had been before falling on Nyla. "In this case it was more like dark fonons that mutated and gained sentience, or rather, it combined fonons to form into a being like that."

Jade adjusted his glasses, eyes on the blonde who was now being stared at by everyone except the healers. While he had been wondering what type of creature that was, he was surprised when the girl seemed to know more than he'd thought she would.

"What do you mean, Valeria?"

The blonde's eyes flicked to Guy then, allowing Jade to see the energy that seemed to swim in her eyes. "That thing was a Sword Dancer, a creature created from violent deaths of swordsmen. Granted, there is only one soul remaining now, but it was created through dark means by using many souls. The reason the monsters gather around it is because of the dark aura produced when the Sword Dancer is created, and the more souls that collect to it, the more pronounced the aura becomes and the stronger the creature gets."

Guy looked uncomfortable. "Swordsmen become that when they die?"

Valeria turned her head slightly. "No, not usually, only when they die in a horrific way and have unfinished business do they linger long enough for the spirit of the Sword Dancer to collect their souls."

"Well it doesn't matter now, does it? We defeated it, and the monsters are gone."

Valeria once again looked away, her gaze falling on Nyla. "For now…"

"D-don't say things like that!" Luke snapped his tone more of worry than anger.

Tear and Natalia were both now working on healing Nyla, the wound looking much better than it had before. Valeria still seemed to favor her side, but her blank look had serious eyes that stayed locked onto Nyla once their conversation was over.

It almost looked like a storm was brewing in those silver eyes of hers.

But the next time she blinked, the storm seemed to recede and was then replaced by confusion. Confusion that was mirrored within Jade, who seemed to have been the only one to see and hear what had happened at the end of the fight.

Jade turned to look around, still not sure why the other monsters had left, when he noticed some items stuck in the ground right where the dark creature had been before it left. Walking over to them, he realized they were a set of knives, as well as a spear. Both items were very lightweight and seemed to have some sort of odd property to them.

Knowing now wouldn't be the best time to look them over, he carefully put them in the group's wing pack before making his way back to the group. He came over right as the healers finished their work and sat back.

"We managed to fix most of the damage, but Nyla probably shouldn't be running around a whole lot," Tear told them, looking at Valeria right at the end.

The blonde blinked and nodded; moving forward to lay her hand on the Arka's mane. "So what, we should stay here for the night?"

Tear glanced at Jade then back at Valeria. "We don't really have the time for that, so—"

"We'll have to keep borrowing the carriages until Deo Pass then, even with the carriages, it'll take us at least a day and a half to get there, so that should be enough time for Nyla to rest, correct?" Jade interrupted, knowing full well that Tear was about to suggest leaving the Arka and her girl here, something he wouldn't allow, since that would give Valeria a chance to get away and cause more mischief.

The melodist raised an eyebrow. "Are the carriages even still there?"

Guy spoke up. "I believe so; I think I remember Jade asking the drivers to stay just in case we needed them."

"Good! I'm sick of walking…"

Jade could tell that Valeria wasn't fully there, normally with an outburst like that from Luke she would've responded with some sarcastic remark. Yet all she did was stare at Nyla and pet her fur, a confused look in her eyes, though he doubted the others would notice.

"Well, once Nyla wakes up, we'll head back to the carriages. Tear, Natalia? Would the two of you ride with Nyla and Valeria to make sure Nyla heals by the time we reach the pass? Valeria should have some more gels for the two of you if you need them. Luke, Guy, Anise, Ion, and I will ride in the other carriage." Jade would've preferred to keep an eye on Valeria himself, but the fewer passengers surrounding the injured Arka, the better.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N:**

**RK: Well, this managed to get finished much sooner than I thought it would! Who knew that not having Mara around would be beneficial?! Just kidding. Anyway, I'm still by my lonesome! (Except for the amazing and wonderful IHaveNoIdea8, who beta'd this chapter for me!)**

**I actually feel accomplished, since I think this is the first chapter I've written completely by myself. Usually Mara and I pass the chapters back and forth to write different parts or just edit things but I now have free reign! Mwuahahahaha! **

**Well, I'm writing this right before class, so I'm gonna leave, hope you enjoy the new chapter!**

* * *

Valeria was deep in thought the whole carriage ride to Deo Pass, only breaking from those thoughts when one of the healers riding with her mentioned that there was blood on the seat. Apparently it was from her back, though she couldn't remember how she'd gotten the wound.

And that really bugged her.

The last thing she remembered was giving Tear and Jade some gels and then a black haze filled her memories. The next thing she knew, she was standing above Nyla as the Arka was being healed by Tear and Natalia.

It was the second time so far that this had happened to her, and she couldn't really find anything similar between the two instances. It made it difficult to really figure out what might have been triggering her memory lapses.

A growl was the only thing that warned her of Nyla suddenly jumping out of the carriage. Both healers cried out, but the Arka apparently wasn't having it. Like Valeria, Nyla didn't like being enclosed in small spaces for very long.

Valeria stepped out and stretched after the carriage came to a full stop right near a rocky cliff, immediately regretting the movement when a twinge in her back made itself known. Apparently sitting in a carriage with a freshly healed injury for long periods of time wasn't good for your muscles. Who knew?

The rest of the group slowly got out of the carriage as well, though they didn't seem to have sore muscles like Valeria, which bugged her for some reason.

Shaking her head, she padded over to Nyla, who seemed energetic at least. Tear came over as well, giving the Arka one last look before giving the okay for her to be ready for travel.

A good thing, since Valeria could tell two things: first, the Arka was very antsy, and second, she was hungry. Seeing as they hadn't really stopped for more than a couple of fifteen minute breaks, during which times Nyla had been asleep, she hadn't actually gotten any real food to eat. All Valeria had had in her bags were fruits and vegetables, and the others hadn't had enough food to share with Nyla.

Grimacing, Valeria rubbed her hand along Nyla's snout before nudging her away. "Catch up, find my scent."

Nyla rumbled softly as Valeria took both of the bags from her, then the Arka spun around and ran off.

Turning around, Valeria was met with confused stares of the others. Shouldering the bags, she walked past them. "Unlike us, Nyla hasn't had any food for some time; she's gone off to hunt."

With that as an explanation, the group continued onward for a bit. They'd gotten to the base of the pass around sunrise, and as the sun continued to rise in the sky, so did the heat. Yet, Valeria noted, the heat nor the sun bothered her as much as in the desert, so there was likely a water source nearby that allowed the air to be filled with fourth fonons.

They'd reached one of the first rises before anyone began to talk, though Valeria instantly missed the silence the moment it was gone.

"Man, at this rate, we'll never catch up to Master Van," Luke complained. "We shouldn't have wasted time in the desert and again in that stupid castle."

Anise turned to the noble, glaring. "What do you mean 'wasted time'?"

"I mean wasted time. We don't need Ion anymore. The war won't start as long as I'm around." His gaze then fell on Valeria, not that she really noticed, since she stared in the direction Nyla had run off in. "And why is she even here? It's her fault we went to that castle!"

"You moron," Anise huffed.

"H-hey!"

Tear sighed, placing her hand to her forehead. "Luke, even I thought that was arrogant."

"The peace is based on the respect the Malkuth Emperor and Father have for the Fon Master. Without Ion there would be no mediator," Natalia told Luke, she then looked at Valeria as well. "And Jade was the one who wanted to go to Choral Castle, so the information Valeria gathered must be important in some way."

"No, it's not that either country holds respect for me. They merely want Yulia's Score. I'm not really needed," Ion interjected right as Valeria turned around, seeing the dejected look on the Fon Master's face.

"Not necessarily, from what I can understand, the Order is run by the things that you do. It's due to you that there have been more scorers being trained due to the changes you've made since Evenos passed the torch to you," Valeria told him, her finger tapping her chin thoughtfully.

"I agree with Valeria. You carry weight as a deterrent, Ion. Even if you do owe it to Yulia's Score," Guy argued.

"I see. You're all still young. So, how about we get going now?"

Valeria almost fell over laughing when Jade pulled that out of nowhere, especially when she could actually see where he was coming from in that manner. Not that she'd willingly say it out loud.

Luckily, Guy said what she already knew. "How does he pull out a line like that at a time like this? You can never tell what that guy's thinking."

The group began walking again with the hot head in the lead, Guy at his side. Valeria smirked as she kept toward the back, wondering just what reaction she might get if she began telling the noble boy a couple of things that she'd learned about the Dorian General. Then again, after glancing to her side, she realized that saying such things to bother Luke would also likely bother the Melodist walking next to her.

And contrary to what some of the others may have thought, Valeria wasn't an idiot, nor completely insensitive.

So instead, she fell back to walk next to Jade for a while, and was glad she did since the conversation she became a part of was hilarious.

"—how stupid can he be, anyway?"

"Still angry, are we?" Jade asked the Guardian. "That's not like you."

"I-I'm not angry!" Anise was quick to defend herself. "I love Luke!"

Since she was close enough, the blonde clearly heard the girl also mention his money.

It made her think again, though she knew better than to go completely into her thoughts since she wasn't riding Nyla. She had noticed that almost every conversation that she remembered (though Valeria couldn't really remember actually having a legitimate conversation with Anise), the girl had mentioned that she liked Luke for his money.

There had to be a reason behind that, didn't there?

In fact, now that she thought about it, when Anise wasn't doing her duties as a Fon Master Guardian, Valeria recalled her running around the Cathedral doing tours and such for money. Then again, Valeria never saw money being exchanged for the tours, but seeing as Anise tended to have better things to do than that, she highly doubted she did those things for free.

Of course, she really could just be reading into those things a bit too much.

"—that was still quite a careless choice of words. Then again, what more could one expect from Luke?"

Valeria smirked. "You know, that's basically the pot calling the kettle black, Jade. I remember a lot of times where you've said careless words."

Jade sighed. "Yes, but most of my 'careless words' as you call them, are used to make a point."

Anise frowned. "Look, I don't really want to talk about this anymore! I'm going to catch up with Ion."

Valeria watched in amusement as she ran off before turning and looking at Jade. "You know, the more I think about this, the less I actually believe your excuse about wanting me to come along. Sure, I did give you some valuable information from Dist's computers, but that should've been the end of it. You could've left me tied up and unconscious in those carriages and told them to take me to Kaitzur, yet here I am."

Jade sighed again. "I'm not sure what will happen once we get to Akzeriuth, and because of that, as much as I hate to say it, some of your skills might be required. After all, I'm still not entirely sure what the Dorian General is up too."

Valeria paused, then frowned. "If you're talking about that time with Nyla after we were training, I don't know if I can do that again. I haven't been training that skill, plus that took a lot of effort and water."

Jade shook his head. "Not just that, though it would have been helpful. You've listened to your brother, and have learned a lot of things from him."

"Oh, well, we'll have to see when we get there. Let's just catch up for now."

Valeria walked forward a bit, just enough to get away from Jade. She actually felt a little alone for the moment. Usually when Nyla needed to hunt, Valeria would stay in one small area to catch up on her sewing or read some letters from her brother, uncle, or even Jade.

Yet even though she was surrounded by a group of people, Valeria felt like she was by herself. It was odd, she felt disconnected to them. Sure, she knew Jade, but none of the others were very familiar to her. When they clustered around one another it felt like she was the odd one out.

And she hated that feeling.

Sighing, she dug into one of the bags she'd grabbed from Nyla, pulling out the papers she'd shoved into the main pocket. After looking ahead real quick to see the terrain and who else was in front of her, Valeria looked down at the papers, finally deciding to look at some of the ones she'd brushed aside.

The more she read, the more she grew interested in some of the projects that Dist had been working on. As far as Valeria knew, the Reaper had been a huge part in a lot of the replication processes over the last nine years, a couple of which Dist probably didn't realize she knew about.

But some of the papers seemed to be incomplete, or rather, the data was exhausted and they had all they could get from it.

So the rest was likely on the disc that the Limiter had asked for.

Valeria grinned. It was a good thing she decided to keep a copy for herself.

"Well, I have to admit, I'm surprised."

Valeria blinked, looking up to see that the Princess was walking next to her. "Huh?"

"I would certainly think that after all this walking along the pass, we would come across some monsters. And yet, the further we travel, the less I see."

Valeria thought about it for a moment. "I'd imagine Nyla has something to do with that. When she chooses, she can release a sort of scent into the air that draws predators toward her. All Arkas have that trait, it helps them when travelling, since they had been bred to be travelling companions."

"Oh, I'd forgotten about that. The Arkas were bred from a couple of different canine monsters, correct? And some of the major talents that they possess are their scent changing abilities and their fierce loyalty."

Valeria nodded. "Yeah, so while she's hunting, she tends to release the scent of a weakened prey, so all monsters in the area head toward her with the intent to eat her, when instead she'll attack and kill them, thus earning her own meal."

"I have heard that Arkas can sometimes have other abilities, is this true for Nyla?"

Valeria thought about it; she wasn't really sure. Most of the time Nyla left the artes to her, so she kept a frontal assault. Valeria supposed it was possible. "I dunno, she has her own secrets just like the rest of us."

Natalia frowned.

Valeria sighed, not wanting to get into it with her. "I just don't know, I'm usually the fonist when we're traveling."

"Oh, so she hasn't really practiced then."

"Yeah, I guess..." Valeria shrugged. " It doesn't matter to me, Nyla is Nyla."

"Of course! Forgive me, I didn't mean anything by that," the Princess told her, she then excused herself to walk near Luke, leaving Valeria to her thoughts once more.

Though she didn't have long to think when Jade suddenly spoke up, drawing attention to himself.

"The road is in surprisingly good condition."

"Yeah, especially since it's not really used anymore," Guy added, his eyes trailing along the road.

"How come?"

Valeria sighed, leave it to Luke to ask a stupid question. Didn't Duke Fabre actually want his heir to know basic information? The blonde was beginning to believe he didn't, or maybe it was a certain someone else...

"This road was in operation back when Akzeriuth was a part of Kimlasca," Guy explained, answering the red head's question.

Natalia nodded. "Since Malkuth took it from us, there's been no reason to maintain it any longer."

"...But, if Akzeriuth is Kimlasca's next target, it certainly would make sense to clean it up..."

Valeria hung her head. "Jade? Remember that pot and kettle thing? You're doing it again..."

Not that Natalia seemed to hear what she said. "What is that supposed to mean?"

But if Jade's amused look was any proof, he definitely heard Valeria. "I said 'if'. It certainly doesn't appear to have seen any recent work. The fact that it's still in such good condition speaks well for the Kimlascan engineers who constructed it."

"You have a most...trying way of putting things," Natalia accused, her tone clear that she wasn't amused in the slightest.

Jade chuckled, "I suppose I do. I'll try to be more careful."

Valeria could tell he had no intention of doing so. "Liar... You enjoy pestering people..."

"Valeria! How could you say such a thing?"

"I'm going to go back to ignoring you now."

* * *

For the rest of that day and most of the second day in the pass Valeria kept to herself. It wasn't until the Fon Master stumbled and collapsed to his knees that she broke from her silence to help.

As Anise began fretting over him, Valeria crouched in front of Ion, placing her uncovered left hand against his forehead. It was clammy and just a little warm, which meant he was just wearing himself thin.

"Are you all right? Do you want to rest a bit?" Valeria heard Tear ask as she began rooting through one of her bags.

"No... I'm fine."

Valeria snorted. "Just because half of us are soldiers or used to pressing on like this doesn't mean you should as well. You're worn down, allow one of the healers to use a small healing arte and give me your canteen, we're taking a break."

As Ion handed over his canteen, Luke crossed his arms. "A break? What are you talking about?! Master Van's gone on ahead!"

"Luke! There's no harm in resting a little!" Natalia snapped. It was a good thing too, since she put it in a nicer way than Valeria would've.

Valeria watched the red head out of the corner of her eye, noticing he was about to snap. Guy seemed to realize as well, since he tried to calm Luke down. "Yeah. This is a tough mountain path. There's nothing we can do."

"I'm the ambassador! If I say we go, we go!"

Valeria looked at Jade, scowling. Sure, the conversation they'd had the day before let her know that there was a reason for Luke being there, but no one had actually informed her that the noble jerk was an ambassador. Plus, wouldn't it make more sense for the princess to be in charge?

The silence from the group almost had Valeria laughing, since she had a feeling most were thinking bad things about their "leader".

"L-Listen you!"

"Let's get some rest," Jade sighed and cut off whatever Anise had been about to say. "Ion, I trust that's all right with you?"

While Anise helped Ion up, the Fon Master looked at Luke sheepishly. "I'm sorry to be a burden, Luke..."

Valeria didn't stay near them to wait for the noble's response, instead she walked ahead for a moment, noticing a small plateau. She told the group about it, knowing it'd be an ideal place to make a small break encampment. This way, they'd be able to see from all sides in case any monsters were coming, and the Fon Master could feel the breeze better up there.

The group, besides Luke, clustered around Ion. Even Valeria joined them. She still had his canteen, and was once again digging around in her bag for some more herbs. Once she found what she'd been looking for, she opened the green haired kid's bottle, but frowned.

Looking at the Fon Master in annoyance, she pulled out one of her spare bottles and began transferring water from one to the other. "Fon Master... Next time you're almost out of water, inform someone..."

"I've been wondering for a while Valeria, but you've been putting herbs into your water bottles as well as a few of ours, why is that?"

Turning to look at the princess, Valeria shrugged. She swished around the Fon Master's bottle before handing it back. "Normally I travel by myself with just Nyla, so I learned about natural herbs that you could find nearly anywhere with greenery. Some herbs, like the ones I just gave Ion, can help restore energy, vitality, and strength. So whenever I see some herbs that I think can help me, I pick them, dry them and then keep them in case I need some energy. Normally I use them on food, but throwing them in water works as well if you need them that badly."

Natalia's eyes widened in interest. "Fascinating, I never knew that. Would you be willing to teach me about herbs?"

"If possible, I'd like to learn as well."

Valeria chewed her lip as she considered the question the two healers asked. She wasn't sure how much longer she would be traveling with them, so she didn't want to make a big promise. But then again, since they were healers, they needed to learn about ways to heal without seventh fonons.

"If we have time before Jade tosses me elsewhere, sure. We can start now, if you want, it'll give us something to do while we let Ion rest."

"That would be wonderful," Natalia agreed.

* * *

After resting for a few hours, they finally moved onward. During their break, Valeria had managed to teach the two healers about two different types of herbs, and since she had a few she hadn't dried yet, had explained the process of drying them as well. They both seemed happy to learn about herbs, so it was actually beneficial, something she wasn't used to.

"Making friends, I see."

Valeria flinched, not having paid attention to Jade walking beside her. Scowling, she pushed his shoulder. "Shut up! I was just teaching them something they didn't know. You know, something any other nice person would do. Why don't you try it sometime, Jade? Share that brain of yours."

It was Jade's turn to frown. "I don't like explaining things, much less teaching."

"Yeah, I know. I was being a smart ass, duh."

Jade chuckled, though before he could say anything, a gunshot rang out. Before she realized what happened, Jade had placed himself in front of her, though the bullet had landed nowhere near them.

"Stop!"

Looking up, Valeria had to keep from groaning at the sight of Legretta standing up above them. In the past, she'd had a few of run ins with the Fourth Division Commander, though each occurrence was because of Dist. That idiot didn't always follow orders right away when he was working on a personal project.

Then again, each time Legretta barely gave her a glance, so there was a possibility that she didn't even know who Valeria was.

"Tear, why do you continue to spend time with those people?"

"I'm under orders from Grand Maestro Mohs. What about you? Why are you kidnapping Ion and traveling to the Sephiroth?!"

Valeria looked between the two and frowned before looking at Jade, who had moved a couple of feet in front of her now. She really needed to get more information, this whole half-assed explanation had left her in the dark on a lot of things lately, and it really bugged her. Sure, she'd know Ion had been kidnapped, that's the reason Anise was with them, but why were they bringing up the Sephiroth?

"To win freedom and free will for human beings."

"What do you mean...?" Tear questioned, her tone curious though still defensive.

"The world is completely controlled by the Score," Legretta told them, shifting the guns in her hands to aim toward both Jade and Luke. "People read the Score for anything they do. The Score rules their lives. Don't you think that's wrong?"

"The Score doesn't exist to control people," Ion insisted. "It's merely a tool to help them follow the correct path."

Legretta's gaze fell on Ion next, before shaking her head. "Perhaps for you, Fon Master, but most people depend on the Score. It controls them. The worst cases consult the Score to see what they should have for dinner. You are no different."

"We don't go that far, but..." Anise argued. "If the Score shows the future, then it's best to live as it says..."

"The Score you get read on your birthday is a useful reference," Guy added.

"Yes, and you hear your life's Score from the moment you're born, so..."

Valeria looked down at hearing the princess' words. Not that this was coming as a surprise to her, but if you hear your life as told by the score from birth, then why would people allow themselves to have bad things happen? Surely one's parents, if they heard about something tragic happening to their child at an early age, would try and stop it.

And if that was the case, then Valeria wouldn't have had to deal with the life she had, maybe she would be elsewhere without all the trauma that her past had inflicted on her.

"Why would people follow a Score that lets their loved ones be pained…?" Valeria muttered softly, not having meant to speak aloud.

She looked up and realized that in her thinking she'd missed something else from the conversation. Legretta was now looking down at Tear with something akin to disdain. Biting her lip, Valeria knew what this meant and began to draw her knives.

"Then we'll stop you by force!"

We?

Before Valeria could completely draw her weapons, something slammed into her back, sending her sprawling to the ground a couple feet away from everyone else.

Gritting her teeth and ignoring the pain from the sudden onslaught, Valeria looked up to see who had hit her.

And felt all the blood drain from her face.

_"You almost lost down there, you know what that means..."_

The same silvery-white pants tucked into silver and grey boots.

_Coarse hands gripped her slender wrist, dragging her forward._

The same black tunic, never buttoned in the front to show off his muscular chest.

_Chains bit into her flesh as she jerked back, away from the sting caused by flesh striking her own, blood welling up on her lip from the force of the impact._

Even his gold and silver gauntlets were the same.

_Cold laughter had her cringing, she fought to keep the tears from her eyes as she glared at him, trying to get over her fear of what was about to happen._

Yet now... Why did he have a tabard resting on his hips? The swirling design was detailed, about as detailed as the tabard she stole from Asch that hung from her own waist.

"_Next time, don't break your weapon. He was very unhappy with you for that..."_

Smug amber eyes locked onto her silver ones from beneath brown and black dreads, and in their depths she saw his glee at finally finding her.

_Those amber eyes held a fire as he stalked forward. Using the last of her dwindling strength she moved to kick him. Yet he caught her strike and twisted her around, leaning into her back to breathe in her ear._

Valeria knew that he'd been looking, knew they both had. As she slowly stood and drew out some knives, she had to pull back her emotions at seeing him.

_"Come now, did you really think you could best me right now? I'll always be there to bring you down, you know that."_

He drew his own weapons, knives similar to her own, and his smug smile grew. "Well, well, what a pleasant surprise. I never knew that we'd run into you once we joined the Knights."

_"After all, we love to play, don't we?"_

"Besides, I did promise that we'd play again, WildCat."

Valeria gritted her teeth, fingers tightening on her weapons.

"Aeron..."

* * *

Aeron tilted his head at Valeria for a moment before rushing at her. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the group splitting up. Tear, Luke, and Anise moved to strike Legretta, while Guy attempted to come help Valeria, leaving Jade and Natalia toward the back to cast artes.

Aeron collided with Valeria, his twin knives held against her own with amazing force. Valeria knew then that he cared little for the others, even as he twisted his grip to swing around and kick Guy, who had been trying to aim for his backside.

Guy took the strike on his sword, the force it sending him flying back. Using the momentum from that, Aeron knocked Valeria's knives away and swung his right arm forward.

Valeria hissed as she jumped back to avoid the blades, but he used that momentum to lunge forward and aim another strike at her thigh.

With no time to avoid it completely, she twisted to the side, wincing as she felt the knife bite into her left thigh, leaving a trail of blood in its wake.

Rising from her roll, Valeria darted forward, muttering under her breath. Right as she struck against Aeron's blades, ice formed a coat along her own, lengthening the blades so that they sliced the sides of his face.

What she hadn't been expecting was his leg to swing beneath her to knock her over.

As she fell, she curled in on herself, her training kicking in so that she herself would roll out of the way. But when she rose, Aeron was once again there, ignoring the blond swordsman who was swinging his own blade at him.

Or so she thought.

At the last second, Aeron dipped forward into a crouch, his hands going to the ground so he could kick back, into Guy's stomach. Right before the blond flew through the air, his sword managed to slice down towards the ground right as Valeria tried to back away from Aeron. The sword cut across Valeria's collarbone towards her right shoulder, the instant pain causing her to lose her grip on the knife in that hand.

Aeron stood slowly as she staggered away, a frown where his smug smile used to be. "What was that?"

The ground beneath him shuddered as Jade's stalagmite formed beneath Aeron. He barely glanced down as he side-stepped the arte, something that shocked Valeria. How was it possible to side-step an arte like that?!

Natalia had run over during that time to heal Valeria, much to her relief. But the look on Aeron's face bothered her as he turned to face Guy, parrying against his sword.

As the two clashed again and again, Valeria steadied herself and began to pull the fourth fonons in the air towards her, readying them as she began to cast her arte. She held it back for a moment, allowing more water to build and then signaled Guy.

The moment he was clear, Valeria released her arte on Aeron and watched as the water from Spread formed beneath him and threw him into the air.

She ran forward then, knowing that she needed to get beneath him if she wanted to cause any damage.

"Diving Dragon!"

Aeron dove at her, blades out, and Valeria realized she'd never actually learned what artes he'd known. Bringing her blades up just in time, she parried with him, saving herself from the sharpness of the knives, though the force of his strike had him lying on top of her.

That feeling alone had her eyes widening and limbs shaking.

Now Aeron was scowling at her, teeth bared. "You little bitch! How dare you use artes when you're not allowed!"

Valeria vaguely heard someone yelling at her to move, yet she knew in the position she was in, Aeron had her. His knives pushed against hers as he put more weight on her stomach, making it hard for her to breathe.

Where was Guy? There was no way Aeron would be able to keep his hold if the blond attacked.

Suddenly a fonic circle formed beneath the two of them, and Aeron looked up in shock, right as an onslaught of water fell over the two of them. While it was clear that the water hurt Aeron enough for Valeria to push him away from her, instead of harming her, the water began to give her strength.

Rolling away from Aeron, Valeria stood and dashed back toward Jade as Guy ran at the downed Aeron.

"Valeria, are you okay?"

"Now is not the time for this Jade…" she countered, settling into a casting stance and beginning to form an arte.

"This I summon, icy breath cover my enemies to sleep forever— Gyhaa!"

Valeria fell back; staring in disbelief at the knife imbedded in her side as the blood welled up and began to seep out of her body. Looking up, she watched as Guy landed a strike on Aeron's left shoulder, the shoulder of the arm that had thrown the knife.

The man with dreadlocks fell back himself, rolling away from the swordsman who kept after him. He kicked out at Guy, catching the blond's blade and forcing him away as he pulled another knife from somewhere.

Ignoring the next arte that Jade had cast, as well as Guy who had quickly recovered, Aeron put forth a burst of speed to come at Valeria. She lay helpless on the ground, her mind in shock for some reason at seeing the blade in her side, though she knew this wasn't the first time she'd been stabbed.

A loud growl was heard and a red form knocked into Aeron, sending him to the ground before standing in his path to Valeria. Nyla crouched low; fangs gleaming as she slowly inched forward.

"Aeron!"

The knife wielder scowled, glancing back for a brief instant before sighing. "Well, looks like our fun ends here. Hope you enjoy my gift, WildCat. You sure have a lot of surprises, though…"

Aeron ducked out of the way of Guy's next strike then darted behind one of the large boulders surrounding the pass, disappearing from sight as Natalia ran over to Valeria.

Gift?

It dawned on her the moment she thought it and slapped Natalia's hand when the princess attempted to pull the knife from Valeria's side.

"Don't, there's poison on the blade…"

Natalia gasped as Valeria realized all other sounds of fighting had stopped. She looked over and watched as Jade grew annoyed with Legretta.

"...So, it was you people who resurrected that forbidden technology!"

The next few words escaped her as she felt a wave of pain build up from where the knife was still in her body, and she had to keep from bending over in pain. Nyla padded over to her then as well, rubbing her muzzle against Valeria's face in an attempt to calm her. And seeing as she was using a soothing scent, it actually began to help until another wave jolted her senses.

"Over my dead body!"

Valeria heard that and wanted to giggle, even knowing that it wasn't a good idea. Just how fast acting was Aeron's poison? She couldn't remember at the moment, but she could've sworn it wasn't this bad in the past.

"Jade! Tear! I need your help! Valeria's been poisoned!"

The next instant the two of them were there, Legretta either gone or forgotten about, Valeria didn't know. Jade moved to grab the blade as well, though Valeria remembered enough to bat his hand away as well.

"Remove the blade…poison spreads…" she mumbled, trying to remember the specifics of the poisons after all the years since she last encountered them.

"Do you know what this poison is?"

Valeria struggled to nod at Tear's question. "Panacea…Sage…Jasmine…Verbenna…knife out…last…sleep…"

It felt like ages as the pain from the poison seeped through her body, until finally she felt someone tilt her head back and liquid spilled down her throat. As the last of it was swallowed, she felt the knife being pulled out and the soothing feeling of a healing spell being cast on her.

She blinked a couple of times and the final time she did, she realized it was dark out and there were stars in the sky.

Shifting positions, she realized she was lying on Nyla against the base of a tree. Looking around, she found that the group had moved from where they'd fought Aeron and Legretta to a sheltered space ways away from the exit of the pass.

The pain in her side was gone now, for which she was thankful, but looking down she realized once again she was covered in bandages, though luckily none were bloody.

"Ever since joined this group it's been one injury after the next!"

"So it seems."

Valeria flinched at the sound of the voice, then cringed when she actually felt more pain from her side. Nyla, who had awakened right when Valeria had, realized this and growled softly at Jade.

"My apologies, I didn't mean to startle you."

Valeria grunted softly and snuggled back down against Nyla, whose tails wrapped around the girl instantly.

"Is this a bad time?"

The two humans looked over at Tear, who had just come from the other side of their camp. "No, what's up?"

Tear smiled at Valeria. "I wanted to check your wound again, but since you're awake, I have a question."

Valeria sighed. "How did I know what poison it was and how to counter it, right?"

Tear nodded as she unwound the wrap around her waist.

"I… Um, knew him from a long time ago. He used to test poisons on me and his favorites were the localized ones that caused massive pain without doing a whole lot of damage, that way he could toy with the victim longer, and slowly bleed them out if he so chose."

Tear looked uneasy, and even Jade seemed shocked by this. Normally she would've kept quiet about this, but since it looked like Aeron was somehow working with the Oracle Knights, she supposed she needed to give out some info.

"From what I can remember, he has a few sets of knives, though he only ever coats one with poison at a time. If he ever leaves a knife in you for a long period of time, I would suggest you just leave it there, unless you have no choice but to take it out. Otherwise the poison will actually spread to other points of your body before you have a chance to counteract it. Most of the poisons can be countered by using the items that I told you."

As she spoke, Valeria looked away from them, mad at herself for having to explain things she would rather forget. It had been years, so many years, since she'd last seen Aeron, and she'd hoped that he would never cross paths with her ever again.

It seemed like her hope was wrong.

"You should be almost fully healed by morning, so we can head to Akzeriuth after that."

Valeria nodded at Tear's words and turned to lie back down on Nyla, instantly lost in her thoughts.

Why did Aeron suddenly appear now? And what was he doing with the Oracle Knights?

* * *

**A/N: I'm rather happy with how I intro'd Aeron. What do you think? Think he's going to be an issue later on? *grins* Anyway, hope you liked the chapter!**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N:**

**Part 1:**

**RK: Well, we tried to post this yesterday but apparently FF doesn't like us and wouldn't post it even though it sent out emails (including to us) about how it posted. Still not sure exactly what happened but Mara no longer remembers our password and was away from the computer yesterday which means she couldn't do anything about it. And I had school until late plus things went down, so I couldn't figure out what happened either. So posting had to wait a day, which actually kinda worked in a way. **

**So yeah, sorry about that, I just figured I should let you know about it, hence the part 1/part 2 of the A/N. (The part two was the original planned but slightly edited A/N we had originally had)  
**

**Part 2:**

**RK: Well, this is really exciting!**

**Mara: And why is that?**

**RK: Because! It's our one year anniversary! Meaning we've been working on this fic for a year! (Or rather posting it) It's been a long run and we may not have gotten as much done as we'd hoped but it's been a work in progress and I say that's an awesome accomplishment!**

**Mara: So we wanted to thank everyone who has been a part of our fic so far, those who read it/like it/review it and especially to our beta reader IHaveNoIdea8 for sticking with us this long and hopefully much longer.**

**RK: Seriously, we have to thank you. I know that if it wasn't for some of the reviews that we've gotten, I likely would've stopped writing especially when Mara had to leave for awhile. It's awesome to know that we have people who like our story enough to favorite it or follow us or even review for us.**

**Mara: Here is chapter 11, and you'll have to thank RK for this since I actually had no part in it, been too busy working to be able to help her out.**

**RK: Enjoy and please stick around with us for much much longer!**

* * *

"You know, when you said morning, I thought the sun would be up!"

To say she was annoyed was an understatement. She'd been woken up and was told to get ready, with the sun not even peaking over the horizon.

"The Colonel wanted to get a head start; we're already running behind," Tear told Valeria as she checked the blonde's wound once more. "It's fully healed, though you should probably ride on Nyla until we get to Akzeriuth."

Valeria looked at Nyla and sighed, "I bet miss furbutt over there would've made me anyway, even if you hadn't said that."

Tear looked at Nyla and chuckled softly, then appeared confused when Valeria gave her an odd look. "What?"

"Nothing, just never figured you laughed a lot. I mean it's clear you like cute stuff, you spend a lot of time around Mieu and have given Nyla some looks when she's being playful."

"W-what?"

"It's not a bad thing, just means you're human. Everyone has some sort of weakness," Valeria told the melodist as she began placing bags back on Nyla's back. Though as she looked around she realized one very important thing. "One of my knife pouches is missing..."

"Did you say something?"

Valeria didn't respond as she thought it through. She'd had them before the fight with Aeron, but now she didn't. So either she dropped them... Or Aeron had taken them from her...

Either way, she was pissed. The pouch that was gone was the one she'd just gotten in Baticul, and she hadn't had a chance to use the new blades yet.

"Hey, Jade? Did you see one of my knife pouches on the ground near the fight?"

Valeria knew it was too much to hope that he had her knives, but she liked having a variety of knives to choose from. And if she'd been thinking about it logically instead of just using instinct, she would've used her new knives against Aeron.

"I wasn't aware you'd gotten another pouch, so I hadn't checked to see if there were any lying on the ground. The only knife we have that didn't automatically go back into your pouch is the one that Aeron, I believe you said his name was, had managed to stab you with."

Valeria growled under her breath, a noise Nyla seemed to take insult with, as the Arka looked affronted.

"However," Jade continue,. "I did come across some knives. When the Sword Dancer disappeared, he seemed to have left them behind. I'd actually forgotten about them until now."

Valeria eyed him carefully, knowing that last bit had to have been a lie. That jerk never forgot things, but she supposed this might've been the first time he could've brought it up.

"Can I have them, then?"

Again, he seemed to hesitate, but nevertheless dug into his group's wingpack to pull out a handful of darkly colored knives.

The moment Valeria took them from his hands, she could see why he'd hesitated.

These knives were enchanted.

Before she could look into them more, she heard movement on the other side of their camp, followed by some sort of whining. Valeria rolled her eyes. Luke was awake.

Thanking Jade, Valeria got out one of her spare pouches and placed the knives in there, promising herself a better look later.

They'd walked awhile before Valeria had realized that someone was walking closer to Nyla than she thought he would.

Glancing over at the blond, Valeria raised an eyebrow. "You look like you want to say something, but can't form the words. What's up?"

"O-oh, uh…" The swordsman ran his hand through his hair, looking embarrassed. "I just wanted to apologize."

"Huh…?" The fonist blinked at him, not sure why he would possibly need to apologize. "What for?"

"When we were fighting that Aeron guy," he explained. He seemed to hope that was all he needed to say, but continued when he saw her confused stare. "He kicked me away and my sword sliced your collarbone."

Valeria honestly couldn't remember that happening, so she went over the fight in her head. It hit her a moment later and she hung her head before looking at the blond walking next to Nyla. "You do realize that it wasn't your fault, right? Aeron's fighting style is keyed to stuff like that, in fact he loves it when he manages to induce friendly fire, so to speak. I don't blame you for that injury, not to mention it was healed pretty fast anyway."

"You sure?"

"Yep, nothing to worry about, I know it wasn't your fault," Valeria assured him.

Guy looked relieved, so apparently he'd been worried about it for some time. Glad that it was cleared up, he moved forward to walk next to Luke.

* * *

A couple of hours later, they began to see signs of Akzeriuth. A purple haze was filling the air miles ahead of them and seemed to drop into the ground.

No, Valeria realized, into the town itself. She'd forgotten that the mining town was actually mostly below ground, dug further and further into the earth.

Seeing their destination in sight, Jade had them pressing on, so within the hour they were walking into the haze-filled town.

The sight that greeted them had Valeria's insides growing cold.

Bodies littered the ground all around them, some covered in no-longer white sheets and the smell had both Valeria and Nyla cringing as well.

How many people had died because of this? And how many more had died because of the side trip they'd had to take...

Nyla came to a stop, so Valeria jumped down and walked forward a bit more, looking at the disease and destruction the miasma has caused.

Buildings had been boarded up and had pillars supporting their structures, as if to try and keep them from falling apart. Yet the more she took in, the more Valeria saw the destroyed lives that had been a part of this large town.

"This is worse than I imagined."

Valeria looked at Jade, a frown on her face. "If you thought it was going to be bad, why did you come with me to Choral Castle?"

"Are you sure you want to bring that up? After all, you did need our help to defeat the Sword Dancer."

Valeria made a face, but then again, even if she couldn't remember what happened at the end, she had to admit that there was no way that she would've been able to defeat the thing if it'd just been her and Nyla. Not that she would admit to Jade.

Walking further into the town, Valeria watched calmly as the princess suddenly rushed past to go to one of the bodies that was on the ground, placing her hands on the male, who looked up in surprise. Valeria blinked, she hadn't thought that man was alive…

"H-hey, Natalia, they're dirty. Get away from them. You might catch something."

Valeria placed her hand against her forehead, it was either that, or she'd end up hitting the redhead.

"What am I going to catch?!" Natalia demanded. "How could you say such stupid things?!"

Valeria sighed, "As much as I would love to continue this conversation, shouldn't we be finding the mayor or something?"

"Since when are you in charge?!"

Valeria chose not to answer that annoying question and walked on ahead, letting Nyla decide whether or not she wanted to follow or go around gathering things and checking on people like the rest of the group decided to do. Luckily, Jade and Natalia seemed to decide to follow her as she walked toward the first of the remaining buildings.

"Hey, did you guys come from the Kimlascan side?"

The three of them paused and looked over to see a worn down man wearing a miner's helmet. When he got close, Valeria noticed that he seemed to be limping as well, though after seeing some of the others that were still alive, he seemed to be healthier than normal.

"That's correct. My name is Colonel Jade Curtis, Third Division Malkuth Imperial forces."

"I'm Natalia, Princess of Kimlasca. We've come to offer aid at the behest of His Majesty, Emperor Peony."

"And my name's Valeria, I'm with the Colonel."

"Ah! A man named Grants told us you'd be coming!" the man coughed. "My name's Pyrope. I'm the local supervisor for the mines here. The mayor fell ill, so I'm handling things in his place."

"Where are Dorian General Grants and the rescue team?" Jade asked, "And do you know how many men the General brought?"

Pyrope scratched his head. "Grants is inside the mine. He's attempting to rescue our companions who collapsed there. As for the number of soldiers, he brought a vanguard unit with him when he first got here and a couple platoons of soldiers have arrived since then, maybe three or so? At least one Kimlascan and one Malkuth, though I couldn't tell you."

Jade turned to Natalia. "Do you mind passing on orders from me or would you like to take control?"

The princess shook her head. "I haven't had the same military experience; I'll leave you to command and help with the healing."

"That will work fine, first we need to locate the captains."

Valeria poked Jade as he moved to walk away, then pointed in the opposite direction he'd been about to head in. "There's a small group of soldiers clustered that way."

The Colonel looked at her, then the direction she pointed and turned mid-step to head toward the group of people. Valeria followed at a slower pace, and sure enough the captains of the squads were huddled around a map.

"P-princess Natalia?!"

"I've come as part of the relief team, though I'm going to be relinquishing command over to Colonel Curtiss. You'll receive his orders and follow them as if they were my own," Natalia ordered the Kimlascan captain who'd spoken.

Jade in turn had turned to look at the captain from the Malkuth platoons. "Ah, Grey, I didn't expect to see you heading this platoon."

"Colonel Curtiss!" The Malkuth soldier saluted Jade before dropping his demeanor and looking over the map again. "Dorian General Grants came through Kaitzur and asked for a squad or two of volunteers that could be spared. They needed a Captain to lead them in case the Dorian General had to be away so I volunteered."

Valeria had blinked in surprise at hearing the name, but immediately ran over as soon as the other man had spoken. "Grey!"

The brunet soldier barely looked up to see the blonde blur knock into him, her fist going into the man's gut. But before the older man could touch her, Valeria had danced out of his way and stuck her tongue out at him.

"Ouch…" Hazel eyes regarded her with annoyance. "What are you doing here, Valeria? You do realize that your brother sent a squad out looking for you, right?"

The blonde girl shrugged, it wasn't the first time and it certainly wouldn't be the last. And the hazel eyes that stared at her seemed to realize that as well since their owner sighed and turned to look back at his commanding officer.

Valeria looked Grey over as he began talking with Jade. The captain was younger than Jade, yet older than her - so probably in his later twenties. He'd been with the military for a couple of years, having joined late in life. He'd been moved between divisions a couple of times when they needed replacements, yet has remained with her brother's division for a year or so now. That was the only reason she knew him, since when the brunet first joined the division, he'd been sent with a couple of other soldiers to find Valeria before she got into trouble.

Ever since then, they'd had an interesting relationship. He'd pick on her, she'd abuse him for fun, and then her brother would eventually have to break them up before a real fight broke out.

"—anyway, Pyrope gave us the basics right before your group got here. Apparently some of the upper tunnels have been abandoned for a while, so there's no need to go looking in them. Tunnels seven and eight have collapsed in the past few days, which has put a lot of strain on the lower tunnels. Luckily no one was gravely injured during those collapses, though they were suffering from the miasma, and everyone who had gone into one of the tunnels has been accounted for," Grey told them, indicating on the map which tunnels were where.

"Our main issue is getting the people out of the remaining tunnels. Due to the collapse of the others, we had to pull our men from their original posts to help evacuate the people from those tunnels and now we don't know who is accounted for and who isn't," The Kimlascan captain informed them.

Jade seemed to mull this over before turning to look at Valeria. Seeing the look in his eye, she sighed but nodded before Jade addressed the others. "Alright, we'll have to split things up. I'll keep charge of the Kimlascan troops and will divide them accordingly; we'll take tunnels nine through twelve, which seem to be the largest of the mines. The Malkuth soldiers will take tunnels thirteen through eighteen, since those tunnels aren't as long, start by bringing the uninjured out to be checked and then sent towards the top of the town where the miasma is lessened."

"Colonel Curtiss, I forgot to mention one thing. The miasma seems to be the strongest in tunnel fourteen, the tunnel that the Dorian General has gone into," Pyrope cut in.

"In that case, we'll leave that to him for now. If need be, we'll begin helping with that soon."

"One more thing, Colonel. You said that you were in charge of the Kimlascans, who's in charge of my platoon?" Grey asked.

Valeria noticed the moment Grey realized, right before Jade pointed at the one he was putting in charge. "You've worked with her before, Grey, and you know she's been learning from her brother. I'm leaving Valeria in charge over here while I deal with the other platoons."

The brunet hung his head, though it seemed to be more acceptance than annoyance, before looking at her. "Well, you heard him, brat."

"Shut it, old man," she muttered. She took the map from him and glanced over it briefly before looking around at her surroundings. "Just to be sure, how many platoons and how many men are in them?"

"We managed to get two platoons together, each consisting of fifteen men, so thirty in total."

Taking that in, Valeria bit her lip. "Any healers?"

"Three and one trainee."

Valeria nodded, thinking things over. Her interest was piqued when she noticed Guy, Anise, and Tear heading her way.

"The Colonel asked the three of us to come over and assist you," Guy explained. "Though he didn't say what he wanted us to do."

"Okay, first thing's first, like Jade said we need to start clearing the mines out." Valeria placed the map down and began indicating different mine shafts. "I want the men divided up into groups. Groups A and B with six people will head into shafts thirteen and fifteen respectively, groups C and D with five people into shafts sixteen and seventeen then group E with four people into the final shaft."

"I take it the healers aren't to be assigned a group yet?"

Valeria smirked, nodding to Grey as he seemed to realize what she'd been planning. "Once each group is inside, I want one man to do a quick tally of the amount of people, counting the injured first and bring the list outside to me while the remaining men begin to help the uninjured out of the tunnels. The healers will be sent into the tunnels with the most need while Guy, Anise and our remaining soldier will be helping escort people to the top of the town after getting their full names documented."

"Well, you are your brother's sister all right!" Grey chuckled.

"Stop laughing and get moving!"

Saluting jokingly, Grey moved back to begin following her orders while Guy, Anise and Tear stared at her in shock. "What?"

"It's just; I never really thought you were a soldier…" Guy admitted.

"I'm not."

"Then what was that?!" Anise exclaimed, her arms waving around wildly.

Valeria shrugged as Nyla finally meandered over to her side, dragging a wagon behind her, though how the Arka had connected herself to a wagon was beyond the blonde. "My brother's high up in the military. On his days off he would go over battle and evacuation strategies with me for fun, it was entertaining enough for me at times and I actually learned stuff. Jade knows that, especially since he's been involved in a few of them, though he hadn't known it at the time, so he knew I could lead a platoon if need be. Normally it's not good military procedure, but he knew Grey would listen to me and he needed to focus on commanding the Kimlascan soldiers."

The three of them actually looked impressed, which bothered Valeria a little. Did they really think she didn't know anything? Or had they just been assuming that she was a cold-hearted girl who was fine with killing?

"I'll tell you what I told Grey: get moving…"

* * *

By the end of the day, group E had completely cleared their tunnel, having been the shortest due to being newly dug. Once that had been cleared, Valeria had ordered them to split themselves among the remainder of the tunnels and the stream of people being brought out of them had slightly increased. They were in no means clear, as some of the tunnels were apparently longer than the map had indicated, much to the blonde's annoyance after she'd been informed.

Luckily it appeared that group D was nearly finished with their tunnel, only waiting for one of the healers to come in and help with the final injured person within those depths.

Grey had been running around and acting as a go between for the Kimlascan and Malkuth forces, even without Valeria asking, so she knew that Jade's groups weren't nearly as close to being done as hers were.

Strangely, especially since she'd made sure to keep an eye on tunnel fourteen, she hadn't actually seen any soldiers of any nation come running out with any of the people within the tunnels. That worried her, but since she had to keep track of her own groups, she decided to brush it off for now and went back to going over her lists, comparing the ones from her people to the town roster as well as the lists she kept getting from Jade whenever Grey brought her another updated version.

By that point they'd managed to get a pretty large chunk of people out of the way and up where the miasma wouldn't harm them as much. And thankfully, a small squad from Kaitzur had come, all but one of the six members being healers. Those healers had been assigned to keeping order and making sure no one else got sick while up in the temporary camps right outside the town.

Right now a lot of movement had been slowed, most of the soldiers not wanting to risk damaging any injured citizen any further with the sky quickly growing darker. Work was still being done, yet it had to be done carefully or else a lot of injuries could happen.

"Valeria!" Looking over at Grey, the blonde saw him heading her way with a look of annoyance on his face, a stack of papers in his hands. "Got two more lists for you. The Colonel says that they're just about done with one of their tunnels and he plans to use those who'd worked in that tunnel to begin forming parties to escort citizens through the pass. Only thing is, he can't just send them by themselves."

"Let me guess, he needs a commanding officer to oversee the transport?" At his nod she sighed. "You've mostly been an errand boy, I can just shove that off on someone else, likely Anise since she needs a break from using her puppet. If the Kimlascans will follow you, you're free to lead the first few groups through the pass."

"Jade figured you'd say something like that, he also wanted to know if you've seen or heard anything from the Dorian General."

"No, and that worries me. From what we can tell, we're still missing a large chunk of people and strangely, tunnel fourteen appears to be rather large, almost larger than some of the upper level tunnels that had been mined very deep. There should be people in there getting the miners out, yet I haven't seen one person run out."

"Neither have I."

Valeria turned her head to see Jade walking over to her, a lantern in his hand. "If you were going to come over here, why send Grey?"

Coming to a stop by her table, Jade looked at the maps she'd laid out as well as marked. As people had been taken out of the tunnels, the fonist had begun marking off the portions of the maps that shouldn't have anyone in them and had her people focus on the ends of the tunnels before making their way to the beginnings of the tunnels. It was slow work but needed to be done.

"I thought of something after he'd run off; I also wanted a chance to see how you were doing. I know you do badly when not around fourth fonons, and I can guess that there aren't many around here."

Now that Jade said it, Valeria realized that he was right. Closing her eyes, she couldn't feel any fourth fonons directly around her, and yet she seemed to be doing just fine. The miasma definitely had taken the place of some of the natural occurring fonons, there was no denying that, and she should be able to feel the difference of that, especially since she was further down in the city than Jade had been.

"I feel fine…"

Jade's eyes narrowed on her and she held up her hands. "Seriously, I hadn't realized it until you said something. I'd been busy doing my duty, which you should go back to doing yourself."

He nodded, but his eyes had moved up two levels to land on where the entrance to tunnel fourteen was. "We should have seen some movement by now, it's been an entire day. If nothing else happens with that tunnel by tomorrow, we may need to check it out ourselves."

"Agreed. One other thing before you go." He turned back to look at her. "Where is our illustrious ambassador right now?"

"Ah. I originally had him moving people, yet when he didn't do that I sent him to scout around the town. Last I saw of him, he was out at one of the tents bothering Guy."

Valeria nodded and then went back to tallying things on her paper, handing Jade one before he walked off to handle the rest of his duties for the night. Looking at the papers, Valeria knew that she wouldn't be able to get a lot of sleep that night, especially since she was planning on relieving a couple of her men so that they could take a small break before they overworked themselves.

"It's going to be a long night…"

* * *

Nyla's growling was what awoke Valeria, the girl rising into a crouch with a knife in her hand. Blinking slowly, she remembered where she was and managed to stop her blade from sinking into Grey's thigh. Groaning, she put her knife away and ran a hand through her hair, making a sound of annoyance when she realized it had fallen down sometime in the night.

"Gotta say, never been around when you've first woken up, and it's an amusing sight!"

Pulling her hair back up into its tight bun, the ends of her hair spiking out of the rubber band, Valeria gave Grey an annoyed look. "What time is it?"

"Last I checked, nine a.m."

Three and a half hours then. The blonde vaguely recalled the sun peaking over the clouds as she and Nyla had chosen a spot outside the town to curl up at to get some form of sleep. "I take it Jade asked you to wake me up?"

"Correct, he's down at his small little command post. Told me to wake you up then begin gathering the seven men he'd given to me and round up the uninjured citizens. We're to get one of the carts and take about thirty people through the pass, one third of that number being the non-critical injured, hence the cart. A couple of able bodied just in case they're needed. Once we're done with that group, we're to come back with anyone else that can be spared from the checkpoint and begin taking more groups of people through."

"Then I don't know why you're still in front of me. Step to it, old man." Valeria yawned, stretching.

Grey reached out to rub her head before running off, fear of the knife the blonde had drawn being the reason he beat a hasty exit. Finished stretching, Valeria went back into town and found Jade right where Grey said he'd be.

"How many hours of sleep did you get, Jade?"

"More than I would've liked," he sighed. "About six, apparently my men hadn't thought to wake me up when they found a dead body."

"Jade, we're surrounded by dead bodies…"

"Yes, but this one was killed by a sword to the back."

Valeria's eyes widened and she realized what he was insinuating. "I take it we're heading to the fourteenth tunnel today?"

"That is correct, I've left command of my group to their captain; and I have a feeling your men already know what to do, so you can just put the assistant captain in charge, since I've sent your captain elsewhere. Our ambassador group should be enough to assess the situation within the tunnel; I've already woken Guy and asked him to gather the others."

"Even the ambassador?" Valeria asked, disdain clear in her tone.

"I imagine if Guy is coming, so is our noble leader."

Valeria kept from doubling over laughing at his response, only because the small little group they had come with we're walking over to meet them. Looking them over, none of them seemed any worse for wear, not like Jade and her in any case, but they did seem a little tired.

"Okay, now that everyone's here. Valeria, explain."

Scowling at the four-eyed bastard, she looked at the others. "Yesterday we were informed that Dorian General Grants had arrived with the soldiers we've been using, as well as a vanguard unit of Kimlascan soldiers. After having been informed that the largest tunnel with the most issues was fourteen, he left to that tunnel, taking his unit and leaving the remaining soldiers to wait for our command. Throughout yesterday, no one had heard anything from the vanguard or the Dorian General himself, so our group has been tasked with going inside the tunnel to see the damage and assess the status of the vanguard and their leader. Questions?"

When no one asked anything, Valeria looked to Jade who nodded. "Let's go."

Right before their group could enter the tunnel though…

"Locrian Sergeant Grants!" The oracle soldier who'd shouted ran to catch up to them. "My name is Hyman. I'm the one who informed Grand Maestro Mohs about the Seventh Fonstone."

Valeria looked between the soldier and Tear, not sure she heard right. They were still looking for that thing? And why would it be out here, aren't the Fonstones usually protected?

In any case, Tear looked relieved. "Good work."

"The Seventh Fonstone?" Ion inquired. "Don't tell me it's been found?!"

"We think so, but we can't be sure until we excavate it," Hyman explained.

"Tear; please go confirm the Seventh Fonstone's authenticity," Ion ordered, though to Valeria it sounded more like a request. The Fon Master needed to work on his authoritative tone a little… "I'll go with the others and catch up to the vanguard."

Tear seemed to hesitate a little, knowing they might need her healing skills, but finally relented. "All right. Please take care of the villagers."

With that, they entered the mines, slowly picking their way around the tools and mining equipment that was still on the ground. Though the moment they entered, Valeria felt a wave of energy engulf her, knocking her back off her feet. The only thing that saved her was Nyla walking behind her, the Arka's snout rubbing against the blonde as if to ask what was wrong.

Did no one else feel that?

But looking at everyone, they didn't seem any worse for wear. Maybe the miasma was finally getting to her?

"The miasma is pretty bad in here..." Luke groaned.

"Maybe the source is deeper in the mine."

"So the farther we go, the worse it'll get...?" Guy guessed, responding to Anise's comment.

"Well that's going to be fun, I didn't need to breathe much anyway."

"Valeria…" Jade sighed, annoyed with her comment. "I know it's dangerous, especially without Tear, but there may still be people left within the mine."

"May? There is no may, Jade. There are people in this mine, it's the only location the men haven't checked and we're still missing a large amount of people." Valeria countered.

"But with the miasma this strong, how can we be sure there are any survivors?"

The blonde looked over at Guy, sad to admit aloud that since there hasn't been any movement there might not be any survivors.

"Well we still have to try, right?" Anise argued. "Maybe we can do something about the source of the miasma, too. I guess we'll just have to go further in."

The talking was kept to a minimal after that, each person either lost in their thoughts or not wanting to breathe in more miasma than usual. For Valeria, it was the former, her thoughts keeping her occupied so much that Nyla had to stay next to her the entire time, directing her with occasional nudges so she wouldn't topple over.

What was the Dorian General doing?

She wasn't awake during their trip in the Zao Ruins and no one had volunteered information about it, either. So all she knew was that the God-Generals were taking orders from someone, and she had a hunch it was Van.

It only made sense, he was the one who found and selected the people who held the title God-General. The only one that Valeria had a feeling hadn't necessarily been picked by Van was Dist, but that was just because the scientist wanted to continue his research unhindered by everyone else, so he went out to search for a position that would allow that.

Still so lost in her thoughts, it took her a second to realize that they had entered a cavern with people spread out along the floor.

The miasma here was thick, making it hard for Valeria to breathe; Nyla seemed to realize this since she began whimpering. She rubbed her fingers along the Arka's mane before shoving her away. "Go, see if there's a way for you to transport these people, I'll be fine."

Natalia had run over to a couple of them, the others spreading out as well. Jade looked rather concerned, his eyes scanning the cavern.

"Something's wrong. I don't see the vanguard anywhere."

Now that he said it, Valeria realized that they hadn't actually seen any of Van's men at all during their trip through the mine. They should've actually seen a good number, if Pyrope was to be believed.

Since she wasn't going to be doing any lifting at the moment, Valeria wandered over to another part of the cavern. There were two more tunnels that led from this one; she noticed Ion and Luke heading towards the right one, so she decided to head towards the left.

It was a short path that led to another cavern, one that had her immediately gasping at the sight. Where the other cavern had been filled with purple miasma and still breathing people, this one had shades of brown, purple but mostly red.

Blood…

_Knives cleaving against flesh, screams filled the air as the small blonde girl rolled away from those who attacked. Gritting her teeth, hand clutching her own knife, the small figure dashed past the multiple large figures running her way, her small stature allowing for quicker movements than the lumbering tall males around her._

_One of the men launched himself at her, managing a swipe against her before suddenly slipping, the amount of blood already on the floor making it hard to stay upright._

_The blonde let her knees buckle, sliding across the blood to get away from those chasing her. More and more of the still hot liquid from the floor spilled across her already splattered form as she rose into a crouch, arms held in front of her, heedless of the wound leaking her own essence to join the already large pool on the floor._

Metal gleamed in the lantern light, pieces of broken swords stuck in the ground while others had pierced through the armor of the bodies littering the ground. Looking over, Valeria noticed a more condensed area of miasma around a number of bodies. As she moved closer, she realized the miasma had begun to eat away at the dead bodies, half of their lower anatomy having been eaten away to reveal darkened flesh and bone.

Hissing under her breathe, Valeria fell back away from the larger amounts of miasma, happy to see that the poisonous substance appears to affect dead people more than those who were still alive, even if it did appear to make it harder to breathe.

But one thing was for certain.

These were the bodies of the vanguard…

Though she did see that there were some bodies belonging to Oracle Knights.

How was it possible no one saw Oracle Knights coming in here and murdering these soldiers? Why would they do this? And if they were going to kill the soldiers, why leave the citizens in the tunnel alive?

Jade needed to know about this.

Turning back around, Valeria ran back into the other cavern, though when she got there she realized that Jade was gone. Thinking he'd gone on ahead, she turned and went down the tunnel that she'd seen Luke and Ion head down earlier.

Reaching the end of the path, she saw the remains of what might've been a door. Curious, even though she felt some little piece of information try and jump from the back of her mind to the forefront, she moved through the door before halting as a pain erupted in her head.

_"— you…st… it… troy every…he… roth…—!"_


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N:**

**RK: This has been a long time in the making, and I seriously apologize for that(especially with that cliff hanger!). Life happened, I got busy, family drama and yada yada, other things that you probably don't care about. But! We finally finished this and I felt like we should post it!**

**Mara: It might also be because I kicked your butt into gear.**

**RK: That too. Anyway, I also wanted to say, for those in the U.S.:**

**HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!**

**Mara: Or what I like to call, Happy Explosive Paradise Day.**

**RK: We'll hopefully have another chapter ready within the next month (hopefully for my birthday in August)**

**Mara: One other thing, keep in mind, this story is written by two people and we can't always catch everything when it comes to grammatical errors and tense changes. If you see one, please feel free to PM us about it and we'll be happy to change it.**

**RK: The reason we're saying this? Our Beta is busy with life, which we totally understand, but we figured you guys might actually want to read the story, so here it is! Enjoy! (and excuse any errors we might not've caught after the twelfth time we stared at the chapter)**

* * *

He didn't know why, but it hadn't occurred to him to actually check the score.

If he would've actually kept track of it instead of brushing it aside to keep an eye on what Van was up too then he would've known what was going on sooner. So far, according to what Asch had been able to gather, the Commandant had been following the score loosely, mostly to make sure people believed he was still working towards the fulfillment for the world through the score's prophecy.

Yet Asch knew of a number of things that weren't foretold, things that Van definitely had a hand in.

And one thing was for certain…

Van plans to destroy Akzeriuth using hyperresonance.

Closing his eyes for the briefest of moments, Asch built up the connection between him and the dreck. It wouldn't last long, he knew, as he hadn't had many chances to test the connection other than that time in Chesedonia. But even with the connection untested he would be able to say a few things to the idiot to try and get in Van's way.

_"Don't take another step!"_ He tried to say more but because he was moving instead of staying still, the connection snapped easily.

Cursing under his breath, Asch put forth another burst of speed. He'd been running for a while after managing to give the slip to the men who'd been ordered to keep him occupied. It had been even easier after half of the men had gone to fulfill some other task Van had given them, so that only left the other half to give chase to him.

Another connection snapping into place, Asch grit his teeth in annoyance when he ran into a soldier that had been chasing him. Sword striking against sword, the red head quickly focused on the connection before it broke again. _"Don't go any further! Stop, before it's too late! Listen to me!"_

The connection snapped again the moment Asch finished off the soldier, not even sparing the man a glance. He moved to head down the path to Akzeriuth when something caught his eye.

The soldiers who had disappeared were just around the next bend of rocks, clearly setting up a trap for something.

Or someone...

The only question was, who?

Moments after he mentally asked that question, a soldier came closer leading Van's sister. They both stopped at a hole in the ground that the red head hadn't noticed until just that moment.

Was that a fonstone?

Pausing to catch his breath, Asch watched as Van's sister went over to it, thought right as she touched its surface the rest of the soldiers came out of hiding to surround her.

Mentally calculating, Asch sighed as Tear began arguing with the soldiers. Van had probably told these soldiers to collect the girl so that she would be spared.

But maybe…

Asch jumped into action, running to the nearest soldier and ramming his sword through the man's chest before falling back away from the shocked soldiers to begin casting. Eruption spread out around the other soldiers on the far side of Tear as she took out the ones closest to her.

"Asch?!"

Seeing the shock on her face when she realized just who was helping her would've amused the red head at any other time, yet he had more important things to worry about.

Like the knights he'd left behind arriving to help their comrades in attacking them.

Left without a choice, Asch turned on his heel and made a break for it in the direction of Akzeriuth, leaving it up to Tear if she wanted to follow him or not.

She did, but he could tell she wasn't happy about it.

"What's going on, why did those soldiers attack us?"

"My guess, Van doesn't want you to get involved when he uses that moron to destroy the city."

"What?!"

By then they had run into the city, so Asch chose to ignore her words in favor of moving past the people still doing tasks in the town. Racing down another level, the red head ducked into the tunnel that led down to the Sephiroth, secretly glad he'd snuck around and read some of Van's notes when he'd had the chance.

As they kept moving, Asch made a final attempt to contact the moron in question. _"Stop, damn you! Don't go! Are you trying to destroy Akzeriuth!?"_

The response he got in return wasn't what he was hoping. Why in the world would using a hyperresonance neutralize the miasma? Surely that idiot had to realize that was wrong, right?

Maybe Asch was hoping that the dreck was smarter than he really was…

While making their way through the tunnel, the two of them realized that they had company. The remaining soldiers had apparently decided to ignore being covert and were actively trying to take them, along with a couple of gryphons that had arrived suddenly. Asch cursed as he had to dodge out of the way of an air blast or be hit by it and possibly taken by the flying creatures.

Darting to the side of the tunnel and leaping off the slight ledge to the lower level, the red head ran into Jade. The Colonel looked at him in surprise even as the former God General side stepped him to continue down the path.

"Hey! Do something about that dreck you call Luke, or we're all going to die!" He called back, not hesitating a moment longer, wanting to stay ahead of the gryphons.

Asch slid to a stop in a cavern, noticing there were two directions in which to head. The notes he'd taken from Van hadn't mentioned that there were two directions and he really didn't have time to waste on going the wrong way.

"Asch?!"

The red head looked at the Fon Master Guardian who had cried out. "Which way did the Fon Master go?"

It only made sense to ask that, since he was the only one able to unlock the door on the Sephiroth. Anise frowned at him but looked around and pointed at a direction. He continued onward, ignoring the girl's cries to come back.

Yet the moment he reached the door to the Sephiroth he felt the ground begin to quake. Cursing under his breath, he continued, even as the ground began to fall under his feet.

"Damn! We didn't make it!"

Right in front of the Sephiroth was Luke, slumping to the ground as his hyperresonance spiraled out of control. Those close to him were blown backward, something, Asch noted, Van was ready for since he was the only one not knocked against the wall.

No… Another figure remained nearby the idiot even after the shock of his hyperresonance pushed all others away. A blue aura was quickly disappearing from where it had surrounded the person and Asch realized that it was Valeria, the girl collapsing to the ground right as the aura faded completely.

What had just happened?

Van looked up in shock, eyes landing on Asch. "Asch! What are you doing here?! I told you not to come!"

"...Too bad." Asch looked away from the two still over by the Sephiroth to lock eyes with his former teacher. "I also brought the sister you tried to save!"

Behind him, the rest of the dreck's group rushed past, intent on getting Ion and the idiot who caused this to happen. He didn't move though, now that the Sephiroth was destroyed, nothing would save those within the city; there would be no outrunning it.

He knew that, after all, he'd had a feeling even as he was rushing here to stop it that he wouldn't make it in time.

When Van whistled, it didn't occur to the red head that he was calling the birds, so when one suddenly dove towards him, Asch didn't have much of a chance to avoid getting taken. The gryphon grabbed him by the air, not dropping him no matter how many times he hit it. "…Let me go! I'm going to die here, too!"

It was only right; why should he, who was supposed to have died here in the first place, be allowed to live while everyone else perished. If Van hadn't taken him all those years ago, he would be where Luke was.

Growling from below caught his attention. Nyla had finally followed the rest of them, likely noticing them all coming this way. What had surprised Asch was that the Arka leapt from the higher group but had attempted to jump upwards not down. It was then that he noticed what had his self-destructive thoughts ceasing to a halt.

Another flying creature had arrived while the gryphon had been collecting him, this one though, had grabbed the one Asch had least suspected Van of going after.

The hresvelgr had grabbed Valeria, grasping the unconscious blonde in its talons as Van ordered it to rise higher into the air.

"I'd intended to save Ion with that gryphon," Van muttered to him as a second gryphon picked him up. "But I have no choice. I can't afford to lose you…"

With those words said, Van waived at the two birds, ordering them to take the two of them away. Immediately the red head stopped fighting his captor, intent on trying to figure out a way to get the blonde away from whatever situation Van might have in store for her.

Why was Van even taking her? As far as Asch knew, the two of them had only met in passing before, since he'd taken great pains to make sure the girl didn't get herself into trouble with Van and wind up in a cell in Daath.

The two birds flew through the collapsing city, making it out of the tunnels right as another major quake happened that shook the entire area. Right as they almost cleared the city though, a large chuck of earth came careening towards them, hitting the gryphon holding Asch.

The bird's wing folded under it as it let out a strangled cry, talons loosening enough to allow Asch to jerk free. Luck was upon him as the hresvelgr managed to get right under him as he fell, allowing him to drop safely onto its back. But whether it was luck or just the creature doing its job, he wasn't sure.

Grasping the feathers right above the hresvelgr's neck, Asch directed it around another piece of earth that flew towards them, even as the gryphon fell into the collapsing ground. Clear from the major collapse, the red head directed the bird towards the east, ignoring it as it attempted to head north.

* * *

They'd flown the rest of the night and well into the early hours of the morning before land came into sight.

It wasn't as close as he'd like, but with Valeria still clutched in the hresvelgr's talons there wasn't much he could do, as the thought of trying to get her onto the its back with him wasn't appealing. If he told it to drop her, there was no guarantee that they'd be able to catch her before she went under water.

They reached the land quickly, flying over the town that rested near the water until they were just on the outskirts of the port.

After having the bird lower itself to the ground, he had it carefully lay Valeria on the ground, actually relieved when it followed his orders of letting her go. Jumping off, Asch thought about killing the creature then realized that the fight to do so wouldn't be easy for him at the moment with how tired he was, especially when he had to worry about an unconscious party member.

Waiving the bird away, he turned back to the blonde and heaved a sigh as he lifted her onto his back. Once he got her situated, he glanced back at her as her check rested against his shoulder. She was still underweight, which still appalled him. He'd thought her brother was working on feeding her more, but then again, since she ran away all the time he shouldn't be too surprised at it.

Sighing once more, he slowly made his way into port, the fatigue he had from staying awake for more than twenty four hours letting itself be known to him. As he gazed around the port town, he was surprised by the amount of people running about at this time of morning, with the sun barely peaking out over the horizon.

But Asch supposed that they must've felt the destruction of Akzeriuth the night before and were still trying to figure out what the tremors were from…

"Hey mister!"

Startled, Asch glanced up to scowl at the raven haired boy who had begun walking backwards ahead of him. "What?"

In all honesty, he hadn't noticed the kid. He should have, having been trained to be alert even while exhausted, yet he hadn't noticed the kid until he'd spoken…

"Is she okay? The girl on your back?"

Asch stopped to ponder that. It had been almost twelve hours since he'd seen her collapse and yet she still remained unconscious. She should've woken up by now, right?

Spotting a bench to the side of the path, he went over to it, leaving the boy behind, and placing the blonde down carefully. Once she was on the bench, the red head knelt down and ran a scan arte over her, one of the first artes the healers had taught him when he began learning from them.

Energy loss?

It wasn't that much of a stretch to believe that, and it definitely shouldn't surprise him after seeing the conditions in Akzeriuth. The amount of miasma within that town had to have made the ready amount of fourth fonons in the town deplete exponentially.

Yet he knew he was right, she should've woken up by now even if she was unconscious due to energy loss. They'd been flying for a long time on the hresvelgr before finally landing nearby, more than enough time for her to wake up. Not to mention they'd been flying over the ocean, where the fourth fonons were abundant.

Blinking, he realized that the boy was peering at them closely, something that bothered him. Standing quickly, Asch made to get Valeria on his back once more when suddenly the boy grabbed her instead. He half thought that Valeria would topple the brunette over but it seemed the boy was stronger than he thought since he managed just fine.

"What do you think—"

"You're going to the ships right? I know a shortcut!" Turning on his heel, the teen ran off, taking the blonde with him.

Asch cursed as he rushed after them, annoyed that he'd allowed the strange teen to take Valeria. He led the way through a number of different side paths, never once going out on the main street or encountering people who might ask questions about how Asch, an Oracle Knight, was following a grinning teen who carried an unconscious girl on his back.

"Why are you helping us?"

"It gets boring, and you're new! Where are you going anyway? It makes no sense to go to the ships until it's time to leave."

"…Daath Bay…"

"Oh! That ship leaves soon, if you would've gone the normal way you would've missed it! C'mon, hurry!"

Asch almost stumbled when the boy sped up but followed nonetheless, not that he had a choice, seeing as Valeria was in this kid's possession.

As they neared the port, the boy looked around. He seemed to find what he was looking for since he turned and meandered over to one of the ships in the harbor. "Hey old man!"

A port worker looked up when they came over, halting whatever he'd been doing. "Nico! Ya brat! I thought ya were supposed to be with yer cousins today!"

"Nah, I'm heading there later. Just wanted to make sure my friends made it to the ship on time!"

The older man looked at Nico with a look. "Uh huh, sure, yer friends… Why are ya carrying the girl?"

"She refused to wake up, and since they couldn't be late I picked her up before he could and ran out the door." The boy, Nico, grinned. "Are ya gonna let them on or are you going to just leave them here? She's getting heavy…"

Asch knew that was a lie, even with how small the kid was, he had handled Valeria no problem until now and since the girl weighed practically nothing; he had to just be saying that just to get the worker to hurry it along.

Sighing, and giving Nico the stink eye, the worker waived them past. Nico smiled at Asch as they walked onto the ship. The kid then turned and held Valeria out for Asch, his eyes staying on the girl. "Hopefully she wakes up soon, huh? Anyway! Good luck with whatever you're doing! It was fun."

"Why did you help us?" Asch asked the kid before he could run off. He still didn't buy it, it was clear the kid didn't know them. "Plus, you managed to get us onto the ship for free."

Nico's smile faltered a bit, though before he was able to say anything, the ship's horn blew and the teen's eyes widened. "Crap! I gotta go! Or else I'll be heading to Daath Bay with ya, see ya around!"

Asch tried to grab him but with Valeria in his arms he wasn't able to make a real effort. Soft groaning reached his ears, making him look down at the blonde. Silver eyes were blinking at him in confusion. "Asch?"

"Who else?" Asch retorted as he walked towards the front deck away from prying eyes. Once there, he set her down and decided to speak before he got bombarded with questions. "I forced Van's hand. I got down to the Sephiroth right after the Van had that dreck use his hyperresonance, and when that was over Van called in some birds to collect the three of us. Though he hadn't originally planned on me being there, he wanted Ion."

Why would he save me…?" She questioned, then her silver eyes widened. "Wait! What happened to Akzeriuth? The others? Are they alright?!"

He would've loved to know the answer to that first question himself. And he planned to find out, if only just to spite Van later on. "Luke's–"

"Come on, it's just the two of us…"

He smirked, realizing that the blonde apparently didn't seem to like his replica either. "Alright, the replica used his hyperresonance without thinking, as I mentioned. It… it destroyed the passage ring belonging to the Sephiroth, which caused the land of Akzeriuth to begin to collapse."

He hesitated, seeing the hurt look on the girl's face. Why would that bother her? Did she know more than he did?

"Anyway, the last I saw of that group of yours, they were yelling at Van. If Van's sister knows the same hymns that her brother does, there's a chance they survived. But I haven't been able to contact my replica via his fon slots, so either he's dead or unconscious."

"Kinda hoping for the dead option…" Valeria muttered coldly, though it had been said so softly Asch wasn't sure if he heard her right or even if he was supposed to hear what she'd said.

Asch looked at her in shock though, when he came to the conclusion that she had indeed said what he'd thought. While it wasn't a tone he'd ever heard from her before, he guessed he shouldn't be surprised that she was more annoyed with his replica than he was. After all, she hadn't been entirely happy with the situation in the past…

_He didn't know why it bugged him, after all, it wasn't the first time nor was it the second._

_It was the fourth time._

_How Asch managed to get around being scheduled for any duty or responsibility for the day was beyond him, but he was happy for it. It meant that the whole day was for him, even if no one else really seemed to remember._

_A few of the other Order members shot him funny looks when he walked out of the Cathedral, apparently used to him always doing some form of work at this time of day, usually in the training fields below the Cathedral._

_Never thought he'd think the same as half of these idiots around here._

_"Asch!"_

_Turning to look over, he got a face full of blonde hair as a small figured suddenly launched at him. Something swept under his feet, knocking the both of them off balance right as he felt the impact on his chest. Asch fell back and landed with a thud, the light weight landing atop him._

_"Ow…"_

_"Crap! Sorry!" The pressure was removed and that allowed the red head to stare up at the silver eyes that still unnerved him to this day._

_Asch scowled at the girl, pushing up from the ground and moved past her and the small and still growing Arka that was always trailing behind her since the day her uncle had given her the pet._

_"What's got you in a tizzy? And for that matter, shouldn't Van be here or something?"_

_The red head turned to glare at her. "Why should he be here huh? Why be here when he could be all the way in Batical with Luke!"_

_The moment it slipped out, he instantly regretted it. Silver eyes widened before narrowing thoughtfully. "And Luke is…?"_

_"No one!" He stalked past, even as footsteps followed behind him._

_This one time, why couldn't she just leave him alone?! He was already feeling like crap, Van was gone, in Batical because of a letter from Fa— the Duke. Everyone else he knew was busy with training and actually probably didn't know anyway, so he really shouldn't be upset about it._

_But why did he always get special treatment?_

_"Is Luke your replica?"_

_Her question stopped him dead in his tracks, whirling around to throw a punch at her. She had anticipated this and sidestepped away from him. Which reminded him, he still didn't know where she had received her training and he really wanted to find out…_

_In any case though…_

_How did she know? "None of your business!"_

_"Well I don't like him." Asch had begun to walk away but her words had him looking back at her. "I mean, I went through all this trouble of bribing people into getting you the day off so we can run around, possibly bother Van, get into a bit of trouble then have some yummy food; and yet the Commandant is gone and you're in a funk."_

_Asch blinked. "You're the one who got me a free day?"_

_Hands on hips, those silver eyes stared at him incredulously. "Well duh! Otherwise I wouldn't get to treat you to a day of fun; I even stole money from my brother to do it!"_

_Before he could say anything a box was thrown his way, hitting him in the face. Catching it, he looked at her, then the box, then back at her. She nodded towards it and he opened it to reveal a brand new foldable combat knife, black in color with red engravings on it._

_He looked at her in shock but her grin was all that met him._

_"Happy Birthday Asch!" Valeria cheered, Nyla growling in agreement._

She was the only one since then who normally remembered his birthday, though how she'd found out in the first place was still a mystery. That day was also the day that he actually came clean about a lot of stuff with her. It had felt good to vent, to share with her after having known her for a long time.

And she'd expressed her annoyance in agreement with him, that it wasn't fair that Asch had lost his life to his replica. Yet he'd never expect Valeria to wish that the dreck was dead.

Shaking his head to clear thoughts, he realized she was looking around trying to figure out where they were.

"What are we doing here? Where are we going?"

"If I'm right, then the survivors of the fall would try and head to Yulia City. There's a way to get there through Aramis Spring near Daath Bay. This ship is going to be taking us there and we'll have to walk to the spring. So we're going to head down and see if we can find anyone."

"And if we can't?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it."

* * *

The odd looks were beginning to get annoying…

You'd think these Yulia City citizens had never seen an outsider before!

As it is, Valeria and Asch had been hanging around Yulia city for the better part of two days. The red head had told the blonde that they were going to be staying for a total of three days, and that was it. If the others hadn't turned up by then then there was nothing to be done.

Asch had mentioned that the link between him and his replica was available again, but that didn't mean the others had survived as well and the temperamental God General had refused to contact the idiot for fear of gaining some of his stupidity.

Not that the blonde blamed him.

But the fonist was worried about her furry companion. She knew that if she had the chance, she would stay in the city longer just in case Nyla somehow turned up without any of the others. But unless there was a way to transport the Arka from wherever Akzeriuth collapsed to this city down here, there wasn't a lot she could do.

After all, Valeria had begun to understand a lot more about the miasma after having spent some time talking with a couple of the people in Yulia City.

But, as luck would have it, she'd been saved from having to leave without her companion, since not too long ago, the fur-butt had barreled through a couple of people in order to run up to Valeria. The citizens had been surprised but once Valeria explained things, they turned a blind eye to the Arka who was now sticking to Valeria's side, almost forcing the blonde to trip over her own two feet.

Valeria then made her way back towards the main path of the city, figuring that since Nyla was here, some of the others should be as well.

"—la go? She ran off pretty fast."

"I wouldn't worry about it too much; she'll come back in a bit, probably just found something that smelled interesting." Jade responded to Natalia's question. "She might catch up with us when we find the mayor."

Sure enough, the group of people she'd been a part of for a while were heading her way, Jade leading them.

"But she'd been so subdued during the whole trip here…"

The others looked up as Valeria and Nyla came into their view and the shocked expressions on their faces amused Valeria, even if Jade's face didn't show any such emotion.

"Valeria?! How are you here? The last we saw of you Van had taken you!"

"Asch." Valeria told the Princess.

The silence that came from the group suddenly was more unnerving than Valeria thought it would be, especially when it was broken by Anise. "Asch?! Why would he help you?!"

Guy nodded. "Especially since this is the second time, too."

"Then the two of you came here." Valeria's eyes fell on Jade, who didn't look to be that surprised by the news. "That is something I find surprising since I seem to recall you normally run the other way when it comes to me."

Scowling, Valeria crossed her arms. "There is no way I wouldn't come down here to find Nyla!"

"Valeria! I'm so hurt that you didn't care about the rest of us!"

The blonde sighed, it was either that or she'd punch him. "I never said I wasn't worried about you all…"

The others kept glancing between the two of them and it was beginning to annoy her. Rolling her eyes, Valeria pointed towards the town hall. "The mayor tends to stay there until the end of the day, second floor, large conference room. Asch should be around here somewhere, I'm tired, so I'm going to find somewhere to lie down."

And she stalked off to find an alcove where no one would bother her.

Once she'd found one, she curled up on Nyla, who had decided to rest as well and was already out like a light.

Valeria smiled as she ran her fingers through the Arka's fur, the smile dimming when she noticed that the canine was shedding more than usual. Nyla was stressing a lot more than usual, most likely due to the blonde. Sighing, Valeria rubbed Nyla's ear, she murmured her apologies, as she dug out a treat from her bag and laid it out in front of the Arka, leaving it there until the canine woke from her nap.

Lying on her side against Nyla, Valeria began thinking of reasons that Dorian General Grants might've had for wanting to collect her from Akzeriuth.

There was also the fact that she actually had no clue about what happened down there… She'd somehow blacked out somewhere between going through that strange passageway and waking up with Asch.

The only thing that came to mind was Aeron.

He had mentioned that they'd joined the Oracle Knights, though what exactly they did was a mystery to her, since she recalled that their group did not like listening to orders. But if they had joined with a couple of conditions, such as access to her if she was found, that might be the reason Dorian General Grants had taken her.

After all, the Commandant probably didn't want to lose the connection that partnering with them gave him.

For one thing, the extensive network in the Underworld trumped a lot of information networks that the two main countries, the Order and even the merchants guild had.

If the Oracle Knight's Commandant had access to the information network in the Underworld…

That thought had chills spreading down Valeria's spine that she didn't even want to complete it.

Yawning, the blonde laid her head down on Nyla, following the Arka into the realm of sleep.

* * *

She woke up a couple hours later when she heard talking below. Looking over the top of the alcove and down, she noticed that Asch had found Jade and were talking about something. Nyla grumbled softly until Valeria shushed the Arka and began actually listening to what was going on.

"I understand you're the reason Luke has become unconscious."

"You don't sound too upset about that, Colonel." Asch retorted.

Jade adjusted his glassed. "In any case, you wanted to ask me about something?"

Valeria rolled her eyes at Jade's attempt at changing the conversation. Asch seemed to share her opinions since he stared at Jade for a moment before continuing.

"I've been trying to keep track of Van's plans, but my information hasn't been what I would've liked. I need to be able to move around without it getting back to Van for a while, and after speaking with some of the people in this city I believe it's possible for the Tartarus to get back to the outer lands."

"So you're asking my permission to borrow the Tartarus?" Jade clarified.

"Only for a short amount of time, until I can get another form of transportation set up. Besides, it would be beneficial of you to have the Tartarus up there, wouldn't it?"

"I suppose that's true, I am rather curious about Van myself, so as long as we share information I believe something could be done about this."

"Good, I'll go talk to Teodoro." The red head turned and began walking away.

"Hold on a moment, Asch." Stopping, Asch look back at Jade, eyebrows raised. "I've been wondering this for a while, what is your relationship with Valeria?"

The blonde in question's eyes widened and she bit her lip. She had a feeling that Jade was putting the clues together and it was probably only a matter of time before he realized how often she'd run off to Daath.

"She stole one of my tabards, which should be answer enough for you." Asch grumbled before walking off.

Jade watched him go before he sighed and glanced up. "Did you enjoy listening in Valeria?"

"Shit…" the blonde mumbled. "Sorry?"

Jade chuckled and walked towards a set of stairs, coming up to her level before sitting down next to her and leveling his gaze at her. "Give me a straight answer, how long have you known Asch?"

"A couple of years," the girl thought about it. "Probably right around the time I first went to go see Dist, I think. Not sure, just know that it's been awhile."

The four eyed jerk's face went blank for a moment as he was lost in thought. "I suppose that considering the events that have happened, it's a rather good thing you knew him. Otherwise, he might not have helped you when Van attempted to take you."

"Before you ask, I seriously don't know why he wanted to take me."

Luckily he let that subject drop, turning instead to another topic he probably wanted to get out in the open. "You do realize that the chances of survival for any of the soldiers from Akzeriuth are very slim."

"Yeah, I know. But I can still hope that Grey survived. He was supposed to have left early and take a group of people through the pass. I know that we don't know how far the earth split and collapsed, but until I know for certain, I'm gonna hope that jerk survived."

"Well, I'm going to follow Asch and talk with the mayor. You should probably hunt down a decent place to sleep; we're likely going to leave in the morning as soon as everything is ready."

Valeria waived him away and turned back to Nyla, realizing the Arka had kept one eye open and on her the entire time she'd been awake. "You're going to be really protective now, aren't you?"

The huff the Arka gave was answer enough.

* * *

**If you see any errors that jump out at you, feel free to tell us. Hope you enjoyed the chapter and the little snippet into Asch's memories when it comes to Valeria!**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N:**

**Mara: Okay! Here is the next chapter. Posted for you, by me, mostly because if I know RK, which I do, she was up late last night playing a video game or something instead of sleeping cause she's off today. Why, you may ask? Cause it's her birthday!**

**So Happy Birthday to RK! You all get her present! **

**Not really, she's getting something else from me, but I think we told you before that we would post this chapter on her birthday and so I shall.**

**Enjoy! **

* * *

It still bothered her that there was no real sun down in Yulia City. Valeria knew it was morning, she'd checked the time after she'd snuck into the mayor's house for a long shower, long only because she had relished the water on her skin. She'd also filched an apple from the kitchen before heading to a stairwell near the conference room, munching on it now as she swung her feet back and forth while watching the comings and goings of those here in the city.

And since she doubted that she'd be able to come back down here for a long time, if ever, the blonde knew she should drink in the sight of all the fon machines while she had the chance.

While she and Asch has been waiting for the chance that the others would show, she'd wandered around the city a bit and had poked around in some areas that didn't have any people. In fact, most of the areas that she'd found hadn't really been touched in a long time. And while searching around, she'd come across a telepad that had transported her to another part of the city. The feeling had been weird but she'd found a terminal for a number of machines in the city.

So, keeping with her tradition of not getting any sleep, she'd poked around there for the past few days, as well as last night, and she'd noticed a couple of things that amused her greatly.

The city was run on a really large grid of self-sustaining generators that were amazingly far more advanced than anything she'd seen up in the Outer Lands. And it's lucky that they're self-sustaining since the terminal itself hadn't been activated in a very long time.

Yet she'd noticed that a number of the generators hadn't been turned on, or rather, the system hadn't been altered so that the rest of them were able to be used. Which meant the city was in fact running on maybe half of the power it could be.

And last night before she'd gotten too tired, she'd figured out how to work a couple of the machines and programs. So now the rest of the generators were well on their way to getting turned on and would soon be able to power the city better than they had in the past. Plus, it looked like more terminals would be operational due to the power surge, so more tech would be available.

Whether or not those would be useful, she had no idea, but it seemed like a fun idea to turn them on.

Coming out of her thoughts, the blonde noticed that Asch was making his way towards the stairs near her end. Smirking, Valeria took a final bite of her apple before reaching her arm back and thrusting the half eaten fruit his direction. The apple arched through the air as she pulled another uneaten one from the pouch on her side, hitting Asch dead center on the top of his head.

The red head cursed loudly and looked her way with a glare before realizing the action would do little to her then sighed. Finishing climbing the stairs, he came over to her. "Was that really necessary?"

Valeria shrugged. "Seeing as I haven't gotten my fill of pranking you, no."

"Pranking, is that what you're calling it now?"

"Well yeah! Look at all the fun I've had in the past. There was that time I was time I was toying with casting artes and ended up casting a large splash on you and your men. Oh! And the time I stole your tabard right from under your nose and you ran around after me swinging your sword while only wearing a tank top. But I think the time I tried to climb that large tree against your wishes was my favorite! I got halfway up and that branch broke from under my foot and I ended up falling on your back!" Valeria reminisced, smiling at the memories that she wasn't saying aloud. She really did like bothering him and getting him in trouble.

Asch suddenly got a look on his face that seemed to be a cross between annoyed and embarrassed. And since Valeria teased him all the time and he was normally used to her teasing, that reaction was rather worrisome.

Especially when there was no one around at the moment who would actually care about her revelations or use them against the red head.

Unless…

"Hmm… Then again, I do remember an instance where you took my shirt from me…"

His face gained a pink hue as he glared at her. "Don't leave things unfinished! You know as well as I do that it was because you were injured and I was the only one around that I lifted your shirt from your wound! And it wasn't even lifted that high on your torso!"

The blonde grinned at him, amused immensely by his embarrassment. "Uh huh, tell Luke I said hi, would you?"

Anger suddenly fading, Asch blinked at her. "Huh?"

"Seriously Asch?" Valeria hung her head. "Please never assume I'm stupid, I really do actually pay attention to things; that and I've been taught a lot. Not to mention I know you a lot better than you'd think. You looked a little, dare I say, embarrassed when I started reminiscing. And since no one is really around us, that honestly leaves only one option. You're connected to Luke right now, aren't you?"

She took his glare as a yes and shrugged, taking another bite of her apple. "I won't tell if you don't want me too, I just thought it was interesting that you opened your fon slots to him after he's annoyed the crap out of you."

"…Just get Nyla ready to leave; as soon as I'm done speaking to Teodoro, we're leaving." Asch evaded.

"Nice chance in conversation there," Valeria deadpanned. "But I'll bite, who's coming with us?"

"Jade, the Fon Master and his guardian, Guy and Natalia are coming with us. Tear is staying behind and so is Luke."

"Okay, if that's the case I'm going to go ahead to the Tartarus," Valeria decided. "I want to lay claim to a specific terminal since Jade's going to want those of us who actually know how to run a ship to be at the controls."

Nodding, Asch moved past her as Valeria whistled. Nyla, who had been napping on the level right below her, stood up and padded below her so that Valeria could drop down on the Arka's back. Together the two went out towards the outskirts of the city where the blonde recalled the Tartarus being docked.

Making their way to the bridge, the duo walked to the back of the room and gathered next to the largest of the terminals. Nyla laid down in front of it, to block the blonde in while Valeria began turning the system on completely from its offline setting, flipping some switches up while flicking a couple of them into an off position.

By the time the others caught up, Valeria had managed to boot up all the essential terminals that the others would need and had run through the basic check for the system. She'd been tempted to do a full check but hadn't known when they would all show up, so the simple check had had to do. In fact she had finished with enough time to look through a couple of the papers that she'd gotten from both Drayden and that weird Ant Lion Man forever ago.

If anyone was surprised to see her at an operating panel or that the ship was basically ready to depart, they didn't say anything.

Of course, maybe Jade had told them that she'd been on numerous ships like this one before.

Then again, that jerk hated explaining things, so she doubted he told her anything. And since Asch didn't seem to care about explaining things to people, and also wanted to keep it a secret of sorts that they knew each other really well, he probably didn't tell the others anything either.

As the others dispersed to different active terminals, even Anise, which surprised Valeria since she hadn't thought that the guardian would know how to handle one of these machines, Asch spoke up.

"Can we run a landship this size with only five people?"

"We could run it with four people but since we have a fifth person, we have even more operations available." Jade stopped speaking for a moment, clearly looking over the systems available. "Actually, even more since it appears Valeria altered a couple of the terminals."

Ignoring the rest of the conversation, Valeria shoved her papers back in her bags before going through the secondary checks for her machines, fingers running along the many knobs and dials, bringing up things then moving them to the right place on a screen that lit up to the right of her moments later.

She'd managed to form two more screens for her terminal right as a mechanism popped up to help steer the ship. Brushing that to the side for a moment, she continued to do a couple more checks on the software she'd applied, hoping that neither that nor the system itself had been completely damaged.

Right behind her she heard Jade muttering under his breath until the blonde flipped a switch on her own terminal that brought up the item he'd been looking for.

He muttered thanks to her, though she had a feeling she was the only one to hear him, before he told them it was time to go.

Seeing as she wasn't sure what to expect, especially since she couldn't do anything else right that second, the blonde just sat quietly in her seat as the people of Yulia city activated the mechanism that would allow their ascent.

Yet when they began rising in the air, she felt an odd sensation in her stomach. As the Tartarus was elevated, Valeria had a moment of realization and immediately ran over into the corner of the room, almost tripping over Nyla.

Jade sighed, and came over to her to help pull the hair from her face right before she began throwing up into an empty bin that happened to be there.

This continued until they finally rested on the water.

Luckily the sensation in her stomach dissipated rather quickly the moment the Tartarus was back on water instead of being in the air, for which her stomach was grateful.

Almost instantly, the blonde began to feel the fonons from the water, glad that they seemed to penetrate the walls of the Tartarus to brush against her senses.

"Looks like we made it up." Jade commented, leaving Valeria to grumble under her breath as she followed him back to their posts.

Jade began swiping things along his screen and Valeria followed suit, finishing up the final things before they could finally be under way. She was about to okay everything when a noticed flashed across her screen, but she was distracted before she could read it when Natalia leaned over her to stare out the window.

"I can't believe this is floating in mid-air…"

The blonde glared at the princess, who seemed to realize she was in the way since she backed off pretty quick, though the damage had been done. The notice was gone and since she didn't know what it was for, the blonde wasn't able to go back and read it.

Hoping that it wasn't that important, she finished up her prep and told Jade she was ready. By that time, the rest of them had pretty much agreed to help Asch for the moment, if only to find out more information about Van, which interested Valeria as well, though not that she'd say aloud.

Besides, she needed to get to another location for the Underworld so she can turn in the information for the Limiter. And from what she can remember, Belkend has a decent area dedicated to the workings and dealings associated with that society.

"Wait! Before we go, could someone explain to me just what I'm supposed to do here?"

Valeria hung her head; she'd thought that since Anise had sat down at one of the terminals that she actually knew what she was doing, but apparently not. Sighing, she got up and went over to the girl before Guy could, shooting the blond a look that had him holding his hands up in defeat.

It took about ten minutes of explaining the basics before the Guardian finally got exactly what she was supposed to do, not to mention the blonde had moved the girl to an easier terminal so that she was able to handle things better.

When she finally walked back over to her own terminal, she felt the stares of everyone there. Turning back around she placed her hands on her hips. "What?"

"Huh, so you became a smaller and more useful form of Dist."

"Shove off Asch!" The blonde hissed as she sat down. It wasn't her fault that she actually found what Dist had been teaching her interesting. It made things like learning to pilot a landship easy so that she was able to make things run more smoothly.

She knew for a fact that if she wasn't there then they were running much more of the system because of what she'd learned about them. She was able to run multiple terminals on just one machine by connecting them with an override, though she did have to be careful since the system here wasn't really set up for the type of overrise she'd applied, but since she couldn't very well start taking things apart until they were one-hundred percent sure on the damage to the Tartarus, she had to run the hack that she did.

Still, with the way things were set up, she had a lot more programs to keep track of than the rest of them. It was a good thing that she was able to rig another screen to appear at her spot, or else it might've been interesting to try and read really small print. So with a new total of four screens, the blonde began swiping along each of them and turning a couple of dials that allowed the engine to fully activate.

The red head just snorted before Jade told them both to calm down and they began heading out.

* * *

Even with how Valeria had rigged the system to work, it still took them longer than the blonde would've liked to get to Belkend's port. Normally she doesn't mind spending a couple of days at sea, but since she had to stay in the bridge the entire time instead of outside where there were more abundant fourth fonons, she wasn't entirely happy.

So when they finally reached the port, to everyone's surprise it was Valeria who ran out the door first, Nyla following close behind her.

The instant she was out the ship, she jumped into the water, relishing the feeling of the fonons brushing against her without any barriers blocking most of them out. It felt great, until Jade called for her to get out or they'd leave her behind.

Normally she would've believed him, had it not be painfully obvious that both he and Asch had seemed bothered that Van was apparently interested in her for some unknown reason.

Still, she relented and got out of the water, just in time for her to see Asch completely brush off Natalia, amusing the fourth fonist enough that she walked over to Asch and poked him.

"What?"

The blonde grinned. "Trouble in paradise?"

A scowl was her response.

"You know, keep doing that and your face will permanently be that way," she teased. Then her grin disappeared. "But seriously, if you're going to continue traveling with us then you may want to stop having a stick up your butt."

That didn't get a response for the moment, so the blonde just remained silent as she walked next to him out of the port. Her eyes kept darting at different locations, not sure what type of monsters were out during this time of the year.

No sooner than she thought that did she hear growling surrounding them. "Uh oh, I think it's breeding season for the wolves…"

Sure enough, a small wolf pack had surrounded their group, intent on their non-human companion.

Nyla snarled at the wolves as they drew closer, intent on their prey, almost ignoring the humans of the group.

"Nyla, with me!" Valeria called to the Arka as Asch told the rest of them to either spread out or guard Ion.

Valeria knew from experience how the wolf packs worked, as did Nyla, since the blonde noticed that the Arka's scent had noticeably changed to attract most of the wolves towards them. The two of them led the wolves a decent distance away from the others, likely to their surprise, before Valeria chose to stop and swift turn around to lunge at a wolf right behind her.

She drew one of the new blades Jade gave her and slid under the wolf, striking at its underside as she noticed Nyla lunging towards its neck, the two of them trying to lessen the numbers before the rest of them caught up.

The wolf rolled to the side before Nyla could latch on but Valeria's strike hit the creature on its underbelly, opening a wound there. But what surprised the blonde was how the wound formed, instead of slicing, however, the wound seemed to tear itself apart and open larger the more the wolf moved around.

Within moments the wolf bled out and collapsed, right as more wolves descended on the two of them, both due to Nyla's altered scent and the fact that they'd killed one of the wolves.

Valeria didn't notice the wolves move in, however, as she stared at the blade in her hand with the realization of just what type of enchantments were imbued within the metal of the weapon. She came back from her thoughts when one of them launched at her, slicing its claws into her shoulder, inches from her neck.

Cursing, she rolled away and faced the wolf, her eyes briefly flicking to the other three that had gathered as well. Nyla was circling one of them with another close on her flank. The final wolf was padding slowly around the area, as if debating who it wanted to challenge.

Looking back at her opponent, Valeria clutched her shoulder for another instant before dropping down as the wolf sailed over her, coating her knife in ice as she drove it up and into this one's underbelly as well. The ice worked faster than the enchantment, though it appeared that the ice itself darkened and pricked the wolf's fur in more locations as it fell to the ground in a heap.

Leaving that one to die, she ran to help Nyla, yelling at the Arka as she moved. Nyla's single long ear perked up as she pivoted to face Valeria, her paw outstretched on the ground. Valeria reached Nyla at a run and the moment her foot touched Nyla's paw the Arka launched her into the air.

Nyla whirled around to the attacking wolf and clamped her teeth on the creature's neck and, once ready, whirled around once more, tossing it into the air after Valeria.

Valeria, on the other hand, had sailed high into the air before flipping over and allowing herself to drop. The moment the wolf was thrown after her, she'd drawn another blade and held the two right in front of her. The two of them collided in midair, the wolf snarling and latching its teeth onto Valeria's right arm as she sunk both her enchanted blades into the wolf's hide.

The two fell, with the girl landing on top of the now dead creature. Picking herself up, she adjusted her position and threw one of the knives at the final wolf, Nyla having attacked the smaller one after throwing the first one in the air. The wolf tried to dodge it, but, having suspecting as much, Valeria had thrown her second blade, this one embedding itself in the right eye of the wolf.

As one, the final two wolves fell and Valeria shared a look of triumph right before the others finally caught up, the fight taking less time than the initial run had.

The first of them to arrive was Guy and Asch, the former looking around in shock at the bodies of the wolves, while Asch stood there staring blankly at Valeria as she collected her knife from the wolf. Normally she'd just let her sigil do its thing but she hadn't actually gotten the chance to sigil the blades or the carrier. That, and she was trying to keep away from the potential blow up once everyone else caught up.

Which they did, moments later.

Jade stalked immediately to her side and gave her a look. She returned his look with one of her own, not allowing him to berate her for something she handled just fine.

"That was foolish."

"To you, yes. But to Nyla and I, it actually wasn't." Valeria told him, crossing her arms over her chest. She had to hold in the wince that came with the movement, having for the moment forgotten she'd been injured. "This wasn't the first time we've handled a pack of wolves and if we would've stayed, they would've attacked the weakest link to bring food to their respective mates. Any guess on who the weakest link is?"

But Valeria didn't give them a chance to answer. "If we hadn't made Nyla seem like the weakest link, those who'd surrounded Ion would've died trying to save him and he still would've died. The only reason the two of us were able to handle them was due to the fact we confused them and broke their pattern when they chased us."

"But, I don't understand…" Ion muttered softly. "Why would they attack us so suddenly?"

Valeria sighed, leaning against Nyla when the Arka padded up behind her. "During mating season, wolves tend to get very territorial because they need to make sure their area is safe for the upcoming pups. They probably scented Nyla, realized she was an outsider and came after her. Only to realize they had a chance at some weak prey to feed them, their mates and their pups for some time. All in all, it was a territorial thing."

"Don't worry, it doesn't look like we killed any of their females," Valeria assured Ion. "Only the male wolves that help protect them, so if any of them had been pregnant, they're safe."

Even though she said that, Valeria noticed that Ion still looked a little upset. But it seemed Jade wanted to end the conversation since he stopped it then and they all agreed that they should move on before other monsters came to see why there was a large smell of blood in the area.

Nyla went on ahead to scout, as well as to lessen the chance of another attack, leaving the rest of them to walk in small groups, Valeria trailing behind them all with a slight limp.

"Valeria…" Asch grabbed her arm before she could move very far. The blonde blinked at him, actually forgetting about him since he'd been so quiet.

They both remained quiet, Asch scowling at her his hand tightening on her until it hurt so much she hissed out in pain. By then the others had walked a small distance away, which appears to be what the red head had been waiting for.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"Me? You're the one grabbing my arm tightly!" She hissed back, jerking her arm from his grip. The motion brought more pain to her other wound and she hissed again, crouching to the ground and clutching her shoulder. Had the injury been worse than she'd thought?

Asch's eyes widened. "You're wounded!"

"No shit!"

"I thought the blood was from the wolves…" He muttered softly, coming to where she crouched.

"Obviously not…"

He ignored her angry comment and placed his hand on the wound, murmuring under his breath. Yet, in her mind's eye, Valeria noticed that a number of fourth fonons in the air were also being pulled in while he used his healing arte. That wasn't normal, seeing as the arte used seventh fonons, so when Asch was done she had a puzzled look on her face.

A look he misinterpreted.

"Don't look at me like that! It's your fault I even bothered to learn these stupid artes anyway," he grumbled.

"I never once told you to do that!" she told him, indigence blatantly in her tone.

Green eyes met hers in another of the red head's famous scowls. "Oh yeah? Well here's the thing, you didn't have to actually state it! Just the fact that every time you came to Daath you were covered in wounds was enough of an order! I swear, it's like you have no sense of self-preservation! And you also refuse to let people you don't trust touch you, so how else are you going to get healed all the time?"

"I heal just fine! Just give me water and my wounds begin to heal on their own in due time!" Valeria snapped at him, the two locking eyes now, neither giving in to the other, anger rising between them both.

"In due time isn't always good enough! You may heal faster than other people when around water, but that isn't always swift enough to make a difference!" Asch retorted, fists tightening. "One time you were close to losing feeling in your arm for good because of an injury you brushed aside until the last minute possible!"

"For the last time, I had been joking around! I had enough time before my arm gave up!" Valeria countered, a little annoyed that he still wouldn't let that drop.

"Even if that is the case—" Asch stopped when someone cleared their throat and the two of them turned to look at Jade, who had the most inscrutable look on his face.

"If the two of you are done, I believe we should get a move on."

Eyes flicking past him, Valeria noticed the others had stopped where they'd been, while Jade had come back towards them. "Were we that loud?"

"On the contrary, I didn't hear what you had been speaking about until I walked back to collect you. However, the two of you never did start moving and that worried the rest of the group."

Well at least in their annoyance with each other, the two of them had managed to be quiet about it, even if they had been rather vehement in their disagreement. Still, this was an old argument of sorts, the healing issue, and it was beginning to get to the point where she almost wanted to give in to him just so that he would drop it.

Almost.

But in the past she'd never had complete control over her choices, so now that she was able to decide things for herself, it bothered her to give control of her actions to others easily. And the red head knew that, so why did he keep persisting about it?

Asch glared one final glare at her, muttering under his breath as he walked ahead. But when Valeria tried to walk on, Jade grabbed her arm.

What was it with everyone grabbing her arm lately?

"Valera… What is your exact relationship with Asch?" Jade asked softly, a frown on his face. "You admitted to knowing him for a couple of years, but—"

"There's no reason for you to say but, Jade. Yes, I used to sneak away from home to run off to Daath and hang out with Asch, but that's it. We're best friends, I guess, if you really had to put a label on our quote unquote relationship."

Jade didn't say anything for a moment, only placing his hand on his forehead. Finally, "Valeria… I—"

"Don't start Jade, it's long in the past and there's nothing to be upset about."

"Apparently that isn't the case, according to Asch."

Valeria scowled. "I don't need you on me as well." Turning, she whistled. "I'm going to go ahead to Belkend. I have to find my contact anyway; they'll be wanting that fon disc I got for them. Do what you plan to do, I'll catch up."

Nyla came running back, pausing only to let the blonde on her back before turning and heading in the direction of Belkend, both human and animal ignoring the calls for them to come back.

* * *

**Reviews are appreciated, especially as a birthday present for RK!**


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N:**

**Mara: So I actually managed to get this chapter read through and done faster than I thought, so I'm going to do a double update this month. Purely as a birthday gift to RK, lol! But no, this one is a short chapter so why not post it anyway.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

"You look like someone just pissed on your cake or something."

Both Arka and girl turned to face the voice.

Gone was the beat up brown tunic, torn black pants and scuffed dark shoes. Instead, Valeria was faced with a maroon tunic embroidered with a silver phoenix, grey pants tucked into new tempered black boots with maroon edgings and black-silver gauntlets. The only thing that remained the same on the silver haired man, whose hair was now up instead of brushed aside, was his pocket covered silver-black waist pack, which seemed to have a new addition of holsters.

Drayden.

Amber eyes looked at the two of them with an odd expression, like he was trying to keep from laughing yet did not believe his eyes.

"Word around the deep was that you died."

Well, that explained that…

Words escaped the blonde as the silver haired smuggler waived at the two of them to follow him. They did, only because Nyla didn't seem to care about the words Drayden just spoke. Valeria on the other hand was wondering why people seemed to believe she'd died.

So far as she'd known, no one knew about her going with Jade to Akzeriuth since she'd never actually gone inside the Malkuth Consulate and no one from Kaitzur knew her enough to tell anyone about her involvement.

"If you're trying to figure out how people knew you were in the town, one of the reasons is due to the carriage driver who took you to Coral Castle; he's a part of the Underworld." Drayden informed her, silencing her internal debate. "Another might be that there were some survivors through the pass, though a lot were severely injured because of the earthquakes caused by the collapse of Akzeriuth."

That perked her up. "There were survivors?"

"Yep," he assured her. "Now, before you bombard me with questions, how about we go somewhere and I'll treat you to some food and we exchange information. There are a lot of curious souls who would love to get their hands on that info, and I want to rub their faces in the fact that I knew the details about the collapse before they did."

If she hadn't already been feeling better with the conversation, since Drayden tends to crack her up when he's not dropping her down a water shoot, that right there had Valeria laughing.

"I'll tell you all you want, but only if you tell me whether or not someone particular survived, other than that I don't have a whole lot of information I require right now."

"Oh, let me take a wild guess." Drayden grinned. "Is this particular soldier the only Malkuth Soldier that had been sent through the pass? Seeing as I don't peg you for someone who knows a lot of Kimlascans, and you likely don't know anyone in Akzeriuth, it's safe to assume it's that soldier. Everyone else was either a civilian or Kimlascan after all."

By now, the three of them had made it to the restaurant that Drayden had been leading. He led them to an outside table and sat there, due to Nyla being with them and not allowed inside. A waiter came outside at that point, though he looked hesitant about coming over until Drayden waived him over. The man relented but, Valeria noted, stayed on the opposite side of the table from Nyla to take their orders, escaping the first chance he could, while Valeria snickered under her breath.

"Well, now that you've ordered. Give me details!"

The excitement from the smuggler was palpable to the blonde and she laughed loudly at that.

She told him what she remembered from the events, as well as the info she pieced together from what the others told her happened on their end, something that had been hard to do since half of them weren't talking and the other half didn't explain very well.

Jade probably wouldn't like her just spilling the beans like this, but in the Underworld, there is give and take. You have to give info to do one of two things. The first is to get info in return, and the second, which is probably the most important reason, is to get a better standing. By giving other people info, it proves that you can help better the rest of the Underworld, and you'll be able to access other information you wouldn't have gotten before.

Speaking of info…

"Oh! By the way," Valeria grabbed one of the bags from Nyla and dug through it. Holding up a fon disc, she smirked. "I managed to get that info for the Limiter; only problem is I don't know where to turn it in. This is my first time in Belkend after all, so I obviously don't know the locations of anything yet."

Drayden looked from her, to the disc then back at her before bursting out laughing. "I don't know why, but I'm surprised. I figured you wouldn't have been able to pull that off, and the Limiter would've had to get the info some other way, but wow, you pulled through."

It took all the Valeria had to not snap at him about underestimating her, but she didn't want the good mood to disappear, so she held her tongue. "Whatever you say, just tell me where to turn it all it."

One slender eyebrow rose, letting Valeria know that Drayden knew about her held tongue but he shrugged. "Just give it to me, we're supposed to meet up soon, so I can hand it over once we catch up."

"And the reward for the task?"

"I'll fill out your slip. It'll probably be a favor or two, not sure how many but you will also get money as well. Though, I can't remember how much off the top of my head but I'll give you some now and the rest will be given after a full delivery, which is how it normally is. I think you'll also get better access to some info sources, if the information on the disc checks out, that is."

It was a lot to take in, but seeing as she hadn't done something like this before, Valeria would just have to believe him. He was a smuggler, not a thief, so she knew she could trust him on things like this. After all, if word got out that a smuggler stole and lied to a client, then he wouldn't get any other work in the future.

Passing the disc over the table to him, she raised an eyebrow when he places two pieces of paper in front of her before digging into his waist pouch. "Got some other info I believe you mentioned that you wanted. It took some time though, since not every bit of info is places in all the locations, but I managed it. Purely on the off chance I ran into you again.

"Yeah, right." That grin was back on his face, so she knew he was telling a partial truth, and he knew she was reading his face. No way he remained a smuggler with an expressive face, he just liked messing with her. "You wouldn't just run into me, though. Like I said before, Noir asked you to help me, so I know we're going to be seeing each other a lot."

"True enough, girlie, true enough." The grin dropped and he grew serious. "Now, I do believe your group is probably finished by now. You should likely try and hunt them down."

Valeria nodded as Drayden waived the waiter over to pay for the meals, ignoring Valeria's attempt to pay for her own food. "I could have—"

"Oh and one other thing," Drayden interrupted before she could yell at him for paying. "Fomicry work takes fominin, as you well know. And I'm also sure you know about the cave in southern Radessia; the one with the obnoxious about of fominin, so much of the stuff that it's super easy to sneak in and get out with a hefty amount without being caught for when the Techies ask for some."

Valeria smirked. The Techies were the fomicry users and creators in the Underworld, and she had a feeling Drayden spoke from experience when he mentioned getting fominin for them.

"Anyway, word around the Deep is that the Dorian General has been there a lot, along with his scientists. Might be an interesting place to check out, though I have a feeling you already knew it might be interesting, didn't you?"

Placing a bag in front of her, Drayden stood up and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Oh, and even had the Dark Winged girl not asked me to watch over you, you interest me too much to walk away. Good luck girlie, see you next time."

He walked off, leaving Valeria and Nyla to stare after him then look at each other in confusion. "I don't think I'll ever understand him…."

Nyla grumbled in agreement before standing. Valeria grabbed the bag in front of her, almost dropping it at feeling the weight. Was this small simple job really worth the amount of gald given, or was Drayden just an idiot?

Shaking her head, she put the money in Nyla's main bag before mounting the Arka, telling her to locate the others by smell.

They ran into Guy first, the swordsman making his way towards the entrance of the city. "Guy!"

He stopped and waited for them to walk over to him, eyeing them warily until it appeared that Nyla was going to stop some distance from him. "What's up?"

Valeria glanced behind him then tilted her head. "I should be asking you that, where are the others? I could've sworn we left you to babysit them."

The blond swordsman smiled lightly at her jest. "They're still looking around the labs. We met with a man named Spinoza and got some information from him, but he ran off before we could get enough details. So the rest of them are looking for other clues."

"And you?"

Guy ran a hand through his hair. "I'm heading back for Luke."

Valeria nodded, it didn't surprise her in the least. She had pretty much figured that if anyone was going to go back and deal with the replica, it would be him. From what she knew, Guy had practically raised the replica, and had probably developed a good friendship. And she also knew that Asch would see Guy as Luke's servant, not his, especially after all the time that has passed.

"In that case, I wish you good luck, you'll need it. You know how you're getting back?"

"Yeah, Asch told me about Aramis Spring."

"Hold on," she told him, digging through her own bag. Finding what she was looking for, she tossed a charm at him. "You'll want that. There are crabs in the spring that can petrify. The charm will protect you."

"Thanks, you probably just saved my neck." He admitted.

Waving goodbye to Guy, Valeria nudged Nyla so that they could go and find the others. They arrived outside one of the main labs of the city, yet when they tried to enter, a guard held them up. She tried to get around him, but the man told her that animals weren't allowed inside, something she highly doubted if Van worked here, he would've likely brought Arietta inside before and she has Ligers.

Valeria was mentally contemplating beating the guards and rushing inside, mostly because Nyla wasn't willing to leave her alone, when the doors suddenly opened and the remaining members of the group came out.

Asch was scowling and Anise seemed annoyed; though the rest of them weren't any worse for wear so she knew there hadn't been a fight or anything, just lack of information.

"No luck?"

The red head turned his scowl to her, clearly not surprised at her sudden appearance. Well, she did always suddenly appear by him so it wasn't unusual. "No, and we lost Spinoza."

Valeria nodded sagely, then she smirked. "Well, lucky for you then, I managed to find us a lead while on my own little adventure."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah, Jade, really." Valeria retorted. "According to my source, Dist and Van have been using a cave on Radessia called Ortion Cavern. Want to take a guess why?"

Red eyes widened very slightly; only noticeable if someone had been looking for it, which the blonde had been. Yet still he refrained from responding to her jab, which she had suspected would happen since she didn't give him a chance to respond.

"It's in Kimlascan territory, so Malkuth can't interfere," Valeria explained. "Dist went there to deal in his secrets that he stole from Malkuth. Plus, it's also a place where fominin can be found, which is used in creating replicas."

"If Van does go there, we can probably find out more about his plans." Asch decided.

Valeria ignored the little jab he added there, as if he didn't believe that the Dorian General goes to the caverns.

"Valeria," the blonde turned her attention to Jade. "I take it you know where it is?"

"I may or may not have gone there a couple of times with Dist. I didn't know, at the time, that Van went there as well, but I've seen a couple of projects Dist worked on."

Jade put his head in his hand. "And you never thought to inform someone about this?"

"The blonde tilted her head. "Who would I tell? In case you didn't know, I only know people from Malkuth and Daath. Malkuth has no jurisdiction there and Daath would just help Dist cover it all up, so there was really no point. Not to mention, I promised Dist I wouldn't tell anymore."

"But," Anise pipped up. "You're telling us now."

"Eh," Valeria shrugged. "That promise was made forever ago, so I think it's null and void now. He never said to keep it a secret forever; well that and I'm mad at Dist. He kicked me out of the lab while I was in the middle of a project, which got ruined because of his interference. It doesn't matter that I know another way back into the lab, he made my circuitry fry because of his need for secrets that never really remain secrets when I'm around."

It was Asch's turn to face palm, with Jade looking like he was considering it as well yet decided against it.

Valeria grinned and rubbed her hands together.

"So! Who's ready to break into a fomicry lab?"

* * *

**Hope you enjoyed the double update! Reviews are appreciated immensely!**


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N:**

**RK: Another installment! You know the drill! Mostly, just enjoy. **

**Mara: A new player has joined the game.**

**RK: You know, I never thought you'd be the one to say that...**

**Mara: Didn't look like you were going too, so...**

**RK: Fair point. Our "argument" aside! A new character of ours is joining us in this chapter! We've mentioned this character multiple times in a different way, so let's see if you know who we're talking about!**

* * *

He may not want to admit it aloud, but he was glad that Valeria had found a lead for them to follow. It had been getting rather annoying going around the labs in Belkend looking for something of interest that had to do with Van. Most of the time they hadn't been allowed inside, due to some experiment going on, or if they did get in, there had been nothing inside the lab that was worth anything.

But he was rather curious about where she got her information.

Sure, she knew Dist and probably knew more about his projects than she let on, but if she thought that Ortion Cavern could been beneficial, wouldn't she have told them sooner?

So who was she getting her information from? And why would someone else be interested in Van's plans without actually doing anything about it? Guy had mentioned that the blonde fonist had said she'd gotten a contract from someone.

A contract that required information from Coral Castle.

Why did it always get back to Coral Castle?

Looking ahead of him, he noticed that Valeria was walking instead of riding Nyla, the Arka nowhere in sight. He recalled the argument they had the day before, the group having decided to stay the night at Belkend rather than walk back to the port in the dark, and thought really hard about what she'd been saying. He had a feeling he knew why she'd argued the way that she did.

He knew all about the issues she had with people ordering her around; and even knew the exact reason why. And, he recalled, it was because of those reasons that she'd refused her brother when he asked if she wanted to go into the military.

But regardless of those reasons, it bothered the red head that she refused to take better care of herself. Dist had actually gotten on him multiple times when he would bring her back injured or even unconscious. And because of those situations, Valeria had had to explain things to him so he wouldn't just ignore her wishes and take her someplace where she would both be helped and hurt.

Muttering under his breath, he hurried to catch up to her.

"Before you say anything, I'm sorry."

Green eyes blinked, taking a moment to compute what she said. "Huh?"

"I shouldn't have acted like that yesterday, but I don't always like it when people make a big deal, I'm not used to it."

"I know…"

"And I'm not used to having to deal with people caring, since I tend to hide things."

"I know…"

"And—" silver eyes glared at him. "Stop saying you know! I'm trying to apologize!"

"And I know that you feel bad, you don't have to go any further. It makes the both of us uncomfortable, so just stop. I get it, I remember what you told me and I know why you hate orders. It's fine."

Those silver eyes held his then she nodded a couple of times, as if to make her own mind come to the conclusion that they were okay.

_"You know, you two seem to know each other really well."_

The red head gained a scowl instantly at hearing his replica's comment in his mind, having temporarily forgotten that Luke was there.

Valeria was looking at him out of the corner of her eyes and she snickered softly. "I have a feeling that Luke is talking to you, isn't he?"

How could she…?

"You get a strange look on your face when he speaks to you." She responded to his unvoiced question.

Neither red head knew how exactly to respond to that.

_"How did the two of you meet?"_

_"I don't have to explain anything to you. And stop talking to me right now," _Asch snapped at Luke. To Valeria he said, "I don't know what you're talking about."

The blonde clearly didn't believe him, if her expression was to be believed but she seemed to drop it.

_"Why? I mean, it's obvious she knows we're connected and it clearly doesn't bother her. It's just… I'm curious. Besides Jade, she never really talked with any of us a whole lot when we travelled to Akzeriuth."_

Why did he have to have a replica who doesn't understand the meaning of personal boundaries?

_"We met in Daath; she always stalked me and never really left me alone, that's all."_

_"But… How did you two get to be friends then?"_

The memory of her celebrating his birthday with him for the first time came to mind, but he quickly brushed it aside before Luke could follow that train of thought; he didn't want the replica's pity. That wasn't really the only time that Valeria had surprised him, or that he'd begun to see her as more than just an annoying pest that would appear at random intervals throughout the year.

_"I'll say it again: I don't have to explain anything to you."_

Luckily, his replica realized it was a good idea to drop it that time.

* * *

They'd gotten back to the Tartarus and made their way out of the port in record time.

Mostly due to Valeria taking the time to instruct everyone on more commands for the Tartarus as she rigged the terminal Guy had been working at up to her own terminal, taking on even more work than before. The things she'd informed them of allowed for easier piloting of the landship, which would make things more reliable now that they were going to be heading to a place that Valeria had said the docking pier was not easy to access.

The girl had also taken over part of Jade's job, since she knew the exact location of where they were going. Essentially making things all the more harder for herself instead of delegating things to others, something Jade tried to comment on until the blonde had brought up that aside from the two of them and _maybe_ Asch, they really didn't have anyone who knew anything about piloting a landship.

That had made Jade remain silent before relenting and gave control over to her, taking her normal position at her terminal.

So before long they were seeing the glowing crystals that had slowly begun to form outside the cavern as if to point the way.

"I had no idea there was a replica facility here. How can I be a just princess when I know so little about my own country?"

Asch looked over at his shoulder to see Natalia looking out the window of his station.

He was about to ignore her completely when he heard a voice in his head that sounded very similar to Valeria's that told him he needed to play nice. He also had a feeling the blonde female was giving him a pointed look from her station a few feet from his own.

But it was hard to play nice when these people had believed that they had the true Luke for seven years…

But at the same time, this was Natalia; he should at least try for her, right?

"Nothing is accomplished by just sitting around in a castle. You learned that, didn't you?"

She grew shocked by his question but her expression quickly brightened. "Oh... I remember that time! You took me outside the castle for the first time, and..."

"...And then Baticul became your castle." Asch smiled slightly at the memory. It had been worth the scolding just to see how Natalia had taken in her city for the first time when they'd snuck out without permission. "You'll only find truth by looking with your own eyes, walking on your own feet. Otherwise this country will never change."

"...You haven't changed. Even as a child, you were always concerned about the future of our country... and you helped me learn."

And his good mood at the memories came to a halt. "...I'm no longer the person you knew. When I was taken away seven years ago, the Luke inside me died. All that's left is his shadow."

"No, that's not true! I can tell... you really ARE Luke," she insisted.

"I said don't call me that." He snapped, not caring when he noticed a couple of looks getting sent his way. "I'm Asch... the charred remains of the 'sacred flame'!"

Thankfully they'd arrived at the small dock and that allowed him to leave the bridge. He could feel the gaze of some of the others on his back as he left, but it bothered him little. Especially when he was trying to deal with the inner turmoil that he'd thought he had under control until now.

When he'd first been taken, his only thoughts while escaping was to get back to his family, get back to Natalia. Then to see that they had accepted a mere shadow of him in his place clenched his heart and made him sick. He'd done his best to get back, and it was practically spat in his face the moment the guards had pushed him away, refusing entrance to the manner.

If only Van hadn't kidnapped him all those years ago!

But no, that had happened, and he'd changed from it.

"Ion, please wait on the Tartarus!"

Asch looked over after hearing the Fon Master Guardian's order, seeing the two of them locked in a debate. Or rather, the puppy dog eyes that the Fon Master was trying to give Anise.

"But I'm interested, too..." Ion pouted.

"No! It's too dangerous!" She argued.

Asch sighed, knowing that if it was left to the two of them, this argument would never end. "Go back, Fon Master. You'll be in our way."

That instantly deflated Ion, his face taking on a dejected look. "...Oh well."

_"Go ahead and take him with you!"_

_"Are you stupid?"_ Asch responded to Luke, rolling his eyes. _"What are we going to do with some who can't fight?"_

"Hold up," everyone stopped to look at Valeria.

"What?" Guy asked.

"Do we really want to leave Ion here by himself? It may be dangerous inside, but leaving him alone out here is just as stupid."

Everyone seemed to ponder that for a moment.

Before anyone could comment though, Nyla bumped her head against Valeria's back, almost knocking the girl over. The Arka growled something softly, though Asch definitely didn't understand anything.

Valeria sighed and patted the Arka's head before Nyla moved back next to Ion and sat down, her meaning obvious.

She planned on keeping the green haired teen safe.

No one else seemed to know how to take this, but Asch knew that the moment the Arka took someone under her protection, she'd fight fang and claw for that person.

Jade seemed to know this as well, since he let the matter drop and began moving on.

They once again fell into small groups, though they were clustered closer this time. It allowed for them to have a small conversation.

"Valeria... what was this facility built for?" Natalia asked the blonde. "You were saying something about replicas earlier..."

Valeria seemed taken aback for a moment, before shrugging. "I'm not completely sure; I've only been here a couple of times and most of the time it was because Dist just needed to get something from a terminal, nothing more. I don't think he really wanted me to know the complete purpose of this place."

"Well… there's that dock..." Anise cut in. "And it looks like a lot of people have gone over it, so I guess people come here a lot."

"Let's head further in," Jade told them as he walked past. "We may find something deeper in the cave."

"You sure sound like you know something we don't Colonel."

"Not at all," Jade assured Anise. "This is the first time I've been here. Although..."

Hearing that peeked Asch's interest. "Although what?"

"...Nothing." Jade shook his head, moving on. But not before Asch heard him muttering under his breath. "Ortion Cavern? You've got to be kidding me..."

They all lapsed into silence for a time, half of the group constantly looking around in wonder while the other half made sure there were no enemies about.

Asch glanced over to see that Natalia seemed to be more interested in the landscape than actually paying attention, since she almost ran into a couple of odd looking monsters.

Right then, Asch knew the monsters were about to attack. Cursing under his breath, he quickly drew his sword and darted forward. The first creature's tentacle met the flat of his sword before he pushed it away and turned his sword to strike the creature, cutting it in half.

Quickly taking care of the other monsters, he turned back to Natalia he checked her over. "Are you okay?"

And he also preceded to ignore the smirk he saw Valeria giving him.

"Wow! Asch, that was great!" Anise exclaimed, rushing over to them.

"Yes... yes, I'm fine. Thank you, Asch..." Natalia said softly.

Since she seemed to be fine he turned his attention back to the creatures he just killed. "Jade, do you recognize them?"

"Well, biology is not exactly my specialty." He acknowledged, bending down to check them over. "Hmm... they don't appear to be indigenous to the area. And they seem odd for a new species." He cast his gaze to the blonde. "Valeria, what do you think?"

The girl in question gave him a blank look, before muttering under her breath. "What makes you think I know about monsters?"

"Looks like this may not go easily..." Asch muttered as the blonde stalked ahead, clearly agitated.

She paused when she had passed up the dead monsters and looked around in confusion.

"What's wrong?" Jade asked.

Valeria stared down at the ground for a couple of moments before shaking her head. "It's nothing, I thought I felt something."

"Fourth fonons?"

"No… I don't think so…. It's fine. Let's go." Saying nothing else, she began to head further into the caves. It seemed she knew where they were going so the rest of them just let her lead.

There were so many twists in the caverns that a couple of times it almost seemed like they'd get lost, especially when Valeria made a couple of faces occasionally when she came to a stop more than once. Though at the same time, the faces she made didn't seem to be ones of remembrance, more like confusion or surprise. But Asch believed that if there was someone dire they needed to know, the blonde would tell them.

They all seemed a little relieved when she told them they were close, after having been walking for the better part of an hour.

Yet the moment they walked into a small tunnel Asch felt a sudden burst of fonons right before light blinded his eyes. Cursing, his vision cleared up just in time to see a blade swinging through the air towards Valeria.

Blood turning cold, he started to move forward, unsheathing his blade even as Valeria remained still.

"It's Valeria!"

Huh…? Why would she…?

The scythe halted mere inches from the girl's neck and a curse was heard from the other end of the tunnel. The blade was pulled back, though Asch didn't put his sword away, and he noticed that neither Jade nor Guy put their weapons away either. The others hadn't moved as quick, so their weapons weren't drawn but they appeared to be on edge now as well.

Valeria snorted at their actions when she looked at them but said nothing before leading the way into the cavern.

Inside, Asch let his eyes rest on the wielder of the scythe.

Blue flames.

That's all he really saw for the first glance. Upon further inspection, he noticed that she had a floor length sleeveless black coat with the blue flamed designs on the bottom half. The blue flames were also on the long, yet cut up, sleeves attached to her midriff teal shirt.

Grey shorts covered by a brown-black waist pouch, two different styles of shoes, one going up to mid-calf while the other barely went over her ankle, both of them grey, violet and covered in buttons.

And finally a red floor length scarf wrapped around her neck, which barely took notice away from her black and lilac hair that was pinned to the top of her head then twisted to fall below her chest on her left.

As he eyed her, the woman twisted something on the scythe, which then began to fold in on itself, turning into a compact for that she strapped into a pouch hidden beneath her coat. Sea green eyes fell on the blonde that had called out and she was suddenly in front of them again, hands falling to rest on Valeria's shoulders.

None of them really knew how to react when the new woman started shaking the blonde back and forth.

"You stupid, moronic, careless, idiotic, worrisome, blasted girl! What possessed you to go to Akzeriuth?! I thought you died!"

Throughout her whole little speech, the woman continued to shake Valeria, so much that Asch wondered if the blonde was going to get a headache. Jade stepped in after some time and took the female's hands off the fourth fonist, dragging Valeria back a few feet.

"Who are you?" Asch questioned, stepping between them.

Sea green eyes widened slightly before turning thoughtful. "Well isn't this interesting. I guess I shouldn't really be surprised to see the company she keeps. After all, she has been friends with Asch the Bloody for some time, but to see him alive and well...? Last I heard, you had made your way into the mining city mere hours before its collapse, with the rest of this group. I wonder—"

"Lillium… Please knock it off," came Valeria's annoyed warning.

The woman, Lillium, blinked slowly, sighing. "Right, sorry. I normally have to deal with people who talk in back handed ways; it really gets ingrained in you. My name is Lillium, nice to meet you?"

Asch was standing there trying to figure out where this woman got her information while Jade adjusted his glasses thoughtfully. "And you know Valeria how?"

The two females exchanged a look, that wasn't lost on either Asch or Jade, before the older one answered. "I've known her for some years, met while traveling. Occasionally we see each other, but it has been some time."

"Anyway," Valeria cut in. "What are you doing here?"

"Here's a better question, Valeria. How did you know that she was here?" Guy asked, finally putting away his sword.

It only took seconds, yet Asch knew that whatever was about to come out of the girl's mouth was going to be a lie, just by the look he saw in her eyes. "Remember that source I told you about? Well, he's her partner."

"Which one was it this time?" The scythe wielder asked, clearly going along with this ruse.

"Drayden."

"Ah, I forgot I need to meet him soon. I think the meet up area is Grand Chokmah, if I can remember that correctly." She shrugged. "But as to why I'm here, there's a lot of information on these terminals that I want to get my hands on. Which reminds me," she turned back to Valeria now. "You know Dist's passwords! C'mon!"

Before anyone could stop her, she grabbed Valeria and dragged her over to one of the three terminals still operational. The rest of them followed at a slower pace, finally deciding that the odd woman didn't appear to mean them harm, even if Valeria was hiding something about her.

Jade looked between the remaining available ones and walked to the furthest one from the door, Asch thought about it for a moment and followed, even if he was curious about what Lillium had Valeria doing.

"What is this place?" He heard Natalia ask.

"It's a semi-abandoned fomicry research facility used by some of the Oracle Knights, mostly Dist the Reaper and men under him," Lillium explained from her terminal. "Most of the devices don't work anymore, at least in this area of the caverns, but they do still have some devices up due to the necessity of the information within them."

As she talked, Asch had taken to going through the terminal in front of him, trying to see what would've had multiple members of the Oracle Knights coming to and from this place. "This is... research regarding the effective scale of fomicry."

"They were trying to create replicas of large objects by increasing the data collection area," Jade agreed after reading over his shoulder.

"Large objects...? You mean like houses and stuff?" Anise asked, trying to look at the computer as well.

"Oh, larger than that. Even back when I was involved, we theoretically could have replicated a small island."

"That's huge!"

While the two of them had been talking, Asch continued to look into the information. He didn't get very far before it started to worry him. "What the hell?! Impossible!"

"What's wrong?" Natalia asked.

"Look at the maximum replica size van's research shows!"

Jade did as he'd asked and glanced at the numbers. "...Thirty million square kilometers?! That's more than a tenth of Auldrant!"

"I don't know why you're surprised," everyone looked at Lillium, the woman leaning against the wall while Valeria continued with the terminal she was at. "They've been working on getting that information for ages, even going so far as getting it from the Malkuth archives or anywhere else they could have, so it really shouldn't be all that surprising. In fact, I'm wondering how they haven't tried to attempt to formulate anything larger."

"But… even if they succeeded in making something that size, there'd be no place to put it." Natalia argued.

The scythe wielder shrugged. "I'm just telling you what I noticed. As I said, Dist seemed to have been collecting this info for some time, even smuggling info from Malkuth as well as Daath when it came to his research. Hod's information is in there, as is information about a destroyed town from a couple years ago that Dist had gone to when he first joined the Oracle Knights."

"Don't tell me they're trying to resurrect a replica Hod...?" Natalia gasped.

Jade was looking at Lillium intensely now. "How do you get all your information?"

"I pay attention, and I go looking into things that people don't like me getting into. I've especially been paying attention to some of the information that Dist has been collecting for years. It's a hobby of mine, I guess."

Asch had a feeling that was only half true, but he knew there wasn't a good chance of her actually answering truthfully, so he dropped it.

"We should probably take this information with us."

"Here," Lillium told them, tossing a disc at them. "That already has everything that's on that terminal."

"And you're just giving it to us?" The red head asked skeptically.

"I always make two copies when I take information from somewhere, that's the spare, it's not like I gave you the only one."

"Hey are these Cheagles?"

Everyone glanced over at Anise, Natalia catching up with her moments later. "Oh! How can they eat if they're trapped in a place like this?"

"You do recall I said this was a semi-abandoned factory, right?" Lillium asked them. She had moved from beside Valeria and was now crouched down in front of one of the cheagles. "I suspect that at least once a week someone comes to check up on these guys. Whether it's Dist himself or one of his lackeys, I don't know, but I have a feeling this experiment is still going on."

"Experiments?" Anise asked.

"They're a replica and his original," Asch realized.

"Yes, they both have a star-shaped mark in the same place." Jade agreed.

"I wonder if these little guys breathe fire like Mieu?" Anise wondered right before she tapped on the bars holding the cheagle.

It looked like Lillium was going to say something when the cheagle suddenly spit fire at the young guardian. She jumped back right before the fire hit her and Asch noticed Lillium pulled Natalia back from doing the same to the other cheagle.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you Princess. The Fon Master Guardian over there was in front of the original, and the one you were about to bother is the replica." Lillium explained. Asch frowned when he remembered they they'd never introduced themselves. How did she know Natalia is the Princess? "Usually replicas have reduced abilities, but in this case the original's abilities are weaker. If you would've had this cheagle fire at you, it would've burned you."

"I take it you already checked the two out?" Jade asked her.

She nodded. "Yeah, I'm typically thorough when I go places."

"I see." Jade commented. "In any case, replica data extraction can have a negative effect on the original in some cases..."

"Oh my," Natalia cast a worried glance towards Asch. "What sort of negative effect?"

"In the worst case, the original dies. Though with perfect isofons, a different effect occurs..."

Asch noticed that Jade stopped his train of thought there, something the ombre haired woman seemed to be smirking about. He didn't think about it too much since he suddenly had a worried replica speaking to him.

"_N-no way... so did making me mean that Asch is...?"_

"Natalia, Asch," Jade said to get their attention again, "there's no need to worry. Symptoms will always present themselves within ten days for inorganic matter. It's even faster for living things. Seven years later, Asch is doing fine. There's no need to worry."

That seemed to make Natalia and his replica happy. "_It's pretty sad when I've got dreck like you worrying about me..."_

Luke attempted to say something but he suddenly heard Valeria let out a cheer, making everyone look over at her as she stood from the machine she'd been in front of.

At seeing their looks, she stuck her tongue out. "What? He seemed to want to protect this terminal the most, there were a _lot_ of passwords on this one."

The ombre haired girl smirked at her as she walked over and knuckle bumped the blonde. "Good job, thanks."

Lillium then put a disc in the machine and pressed a couple of buttons. Minutes later, the disc slid out and she inserted another. Once that was done, she pulled out her scythe and, to the shock of everyone, slashed it across the machine to destroy it.

"Uh…"

Lillium looked at them and shrugged. "Trust me; you don't want the information in there getting out."

"And yet you have two discs of the info…" Guy pointed out.

The green eyed female waived her hand. "I don't count. Now, are you all done here?"

Asch thought about it and came to the conclusion he was done here. It was about time he got rid of these people anyway, it would definitely be easier if he was by himself now. At first he thought it was a good idea to bring them all along, but they didn't trust him and kept questioning him. Both were things that would definitely get in the way if a problem should arise in the future.

"Yeah, we're done."

"So what now?"

Asch looked between Natalia and Anise. "I'll be taking you back to your homeland; I can finish up on my own."

They looked like they were going to argue, or rather, Natalia did, but since he didn't want to deal with it, he walked out of the cavern.

* * *

**Anyone know who Lillium is? Anyone? What'd you think of her? I believe we'll have an image of her on RK's deviantart page soon.**


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N:**

**RK: So! Funny story! *awkward laugh* Um... I pretty much wrote this one by myself... Late at night... Half asleep... And as I'm going to edit it to post it here I found something bad about this chapter!**

**I accidentally added Guy to the fight scene! *hides behind couch* So I had to go back and try to redo a couple of things, but now I'm not sure it flows as well as it did before, so I wanted to apologize for that. But I wanted to have this ready to post today since...**

***Drum roll***

**It's Mara's birthday! But yeah, I wanted to post this today so hopefully it all still makes sense, only a couple of things are off. Including an explanation thing (cause we all know Guy is out default explanation giver, lol!) but I think I covered my basis there as well.**

**Anyway, enjoy!**

* * *

The entire walk back toward the entrance of the caverns, Jade was pondering the woman traveling next to Valeria. He was sure that he'd never met her before but something about her struck a chord that was trying to piece itself together in his mind.

He doubted Valeria had mentioned her in the past; the girl seemed to be keeping a lot of things from him, more than he'd suspected, but he was sure that he knew that name. It just wasn't coming to him at the moment.

He kept his eyes on the two females who were having a quiet conversation when he noticed Asch had come to his side. "I don't trust her."

Jade raised an eyebrow. "Funny, because most of us don't trust you."

The red head scowled. "You know what I mean. The story that Valeria told us doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Sure, she's traveled a lot, even I know that; especially since she came to visit me in Daath a lot, more than I even care to admit, but I really doubt she would just make friends with a random person while traveling. It's just not her style."

Jade was impressed that Asch seemed to be on the same page as him, but he was sure that if either of them asked the blonde, she would just hedge around the true answer. She was tricky like that, always making sure she didn't have to come out with the full truth. He suspected the reason behind that, but the girl had yet to tell him everything, so until then he was left with assumptions that may or may not be true.

And eyeing Asch, he wondered if the red head knew more about the blonde than he did or not.

Suddenly the two females stopped, Lillium looking around with a frown.

"What's wrong?"

"We're about to get attacked, be ready."

Moments after she said as such, a monster sprang from the water at them. Lashing out with long tentacles, the monster attempted to bat away those closest to the water, though due to the warning, everyone was able to dodge before getting hit.

"It's an Ancloployp! A sea creature intent on protecting its offspring! Be careful of its shell, it'll hide to protect itself or use the shell to capture you!" Lillium called out, drawing her scythe and rushing to the side.

Dropping back, Jade immediately began to cast turbulence, watching as Asch and Valeria ran forward to parry the creature's limbs. Natalia and Anise had both dropped back as well, firing arrows and casting artes respectively, so the only one Jade wasn't sure was up too was Lillium.

Asch dashed about, dodging the arte the creature unleashed, though Valeria didn't bother moving. The water spray hit her, sending her skidding back a couple of feet. Yet the blonde didn't look any worse for wear, similar to how she looked when Jade had had to release a splash on the girl during their fight with Aeron.

Taking the chance while they were away from the creature, both he and Anise released artes, his being turbulence while Anise let off a negative gate. Both artes hit the creature, one right after the other, but it seemed to anger it more than actually cause damage, as it quickly turned to attack the casters, casting its arte swiftly.

Right before the creature's arte hit the two of them; Lillium darted in front of them and held both her hands up, scythe in the ground beside her.

What was she doing?

A translucent shimmer of red formed in the air between the female and sea creature. The arte released by the Ancloployp slammed into the shimmer of red before turning back to hit the creature, flames following behind the attack.

"A barrier?!" Anise cried out, halting her attempt at dodging.

Jade's eyes narrowed as Lillium snapped her fingers, two smaller forms of the red shimmer engulfed both him and Anise.

Asch had run forward as the fire abated, parrying their blades against the limbs striking at them. Yet an unseen limb quickly crept up on him, wrapping around his leg before he could get out of the way.

It pulled his feet out from under him and sent him flying, knocking him into the wall, making him crumple to the ground.

Realizing that he needed help, Natalia skirted around the side of the creature and ran to tend to the wounds while Lillium began casting again, yet strangely no real fonic circle formed beneath her. The moment she finished casting, a silver sheen filled the air between the injured and the one who injured them.

The scythe wielder then lifted her weapon, holding it in front of her as a fonic circle formed under her feet for the first time of the battle.

"Power of storms, bathe my blade in sacred light…" Jade paused his own arte as sparks began to engulf Lillium's blade. She swung it around a couple of times then made as if to slash the Ancloployp, but instead of actually rushing forward she reversed her blade at the last second and sunk it into the ground. "Lightning's Wrath!"

Lightning sparked along the ground as cracks formed along the ground, rushing towards the creature.

"Blessed Drops!" Valeria called, turning Jade's gaze to the blonde girl.

Lillium had planned this, he realized, she'd swung her blade around to stall the arte and then sending it along the ground. It was to give Valeria enough time to cast her arte.

The water from Valeria's arte engulfed the Ancloployp, doing next to no damage. Yet it was enough time for the lightning arte to hit the water covered sea being. It let out a massive cry before toppling over from the damage of the arte.

Asch ran forward to finish the creature off, but it got up before he could deal a major blow.

Even though barriers covered the two of them, Jade moved away from Anise, to make sure they both wouldn't be targeted, and then began casting again. He noticed the remaining fonons from Lillium's arte and drew those into his arte, changing his flame burst into explosion.

The creature began heading towards him, he almost halted his arte but Natalia quickly distracted it with a couple artes of her own.

His arte landed right as Valeria's icicle rain did, though instead of melting the ice, the crystals formed by her arte began to expand and shatter again, this time with flames. Yet the arte flickered and dissolved before it actually did any true damage.

"Did that really just happen?" The girl in question cried out.

He didn't know what to think. A field of fonon change was hard enough to do without proper training and practice, but to suddenly combine with another arte? He didn't know any instances where it was possible. Most of the time artes tended to either do their damage separately, or cancel each other out. Case in point since the arte had dissolved before it had fully formed.

"Do that again!"

"I can't, that wasn't supposed to be an explosion. Unless I can get another field of third fonons, I can't use it again."

The blonde cursed as she dodged the attack from the creature, having been trying to cast again. She moved back, dragging Asch with her, who had run through the silver barrier Lillium had created just moments ago, to the red head's obvious confusion. "Anise! Cover us!"

Anise, once finished casting another negative gate, moved forward on Tokunaga to start distracting the creature as Valeria and Asch moved back towards Jade. Though the Guardian got sent flying from the creature's sudden decision to use its shell to ram into her, a move that had the barrier around Anise exploding into a flurry of flames that shot back to the creature; she then quickly got back up to attack it again once the flames dissipated.

"Asch, use Explosion, or just let the fonons react how they may. I wanna try something."

Asch looked like he wanted to argue but instead just began casting. Right away, when it was clear that Valeria had intended this, the fonons surrounding the two began to change almost immediately upon casting.

"Huh…?!"

"Ha! I was right, ready Asch?"

"Just do it!"

"Freeze the Earth!"

"Burn the Skies!"

The arte from before began to form; yet this time it formed a bit differently and was completely focused.

Pools of flames formed in the sky above the Ancloployp, falling down on the creature as jagged ice rose from the ground to strike at its sides. The two elements met with a burst of energy, shooting outward then turning around and striking the creature in a sudden blast of power that sent both a wave of heat and a flash of cold around the area.

The two castors seemed to share a smile, calling out, "Ragnarok!"

"Wind, heed my call! Cut down my enemies!" The creature didn't stand a chance when Lillium followed up their combined a arte with another arte of her own. The wind formed in front of her, combining into an iridescent green blade that she sent flying at the downed creature. "Wind blade!"

It gave one last cry before shuddering and then it was still. Still not wanting to risk it, Anise and Natalia carefully went over to it one last time to make sure it was truly dead this time.

When it was clear that they were all safe everyone breathed a sigh of relief, Anise even going so far as to sink to her knees. "What the heck?! Where did that thing come from and why did it attack us?!"

Lillium was crouched near the slowly fading creature, apparently feeling like she wanted to collect a few things from it. "Normally these creatures stay under the surface of the water, they don't really like coming above the surface. The only thing that would make the Ancloployp do so is if someone killed some of its pod."

"Wait, by pod do you mean these small white tentacle looking things?"

The scythe wielder glared at Asch. "I take it you killed some of the Ployps?"

"Yes," Asch answered, not even a hint of remorse on his face. "They attacked us earlier, so I killed a couple."

Lillium seemed to not know how exactly to respond to that.

"Hey, what was that arte right before the end?"

"You mean my wind blade?"

"No," Anise shook her head. "The one before that."

"The one that Asch and I did?"

"Yeah! What was that?"

"Well," Valeria started. "I've noticed a couple of things when dealing with fonists or even a fonist teaming up with a fighter. When they both use a fonic based arte, whether it's a fonic arte or strike arte, at almost exactly the same time and of a similar level of sorts, the two artes can combine to form a different and much stronger arte, if the intent is right."

Ah, so that's what happened when his and Valeria's arte went off the first time, Jade realized.

"It almost happened with Jade," she continued, "but our timing was slightly off and I noticed that my arte was trying to overtake his arte. So I asked Asch to use explosion and I switched artes to use icicle instead of icicle rain; the two artes are almost exactly alike except icicle rain is more temperamental when you use it in odd ways."

"Valeria, it's never a good idea to try out artes for the first time during battle," Jade chided the blonde. "If something goes wrong there's no guarantee that someone will be able to help you."

"It's not that big of a deal, the artes to make it happen are the same and so is the amount of fonons used." Valeria reasoned. "The artes just combine together seamlessly and do better damage than before. It's not like you're actually doing a new arte, more like an extension of your arte, similar to field of fonon artes. The only issue about these types of artes is that you have to use just the right arte or they won't form at all."

Jade knew she was right; the arte hadn't done anything negative to him when it had tried to form the first time, but he still wasn't sure about using it all the time in battle. Luckily, that might not be a possibility for much longer; Asch wasn't going to stay with them forever and he was only able to use Explosion when a field of fonons occurred, so the chances of them using that combo arte is slim.

That being said…

Speaking of unusual artes…

"Lillium," green eyes now locked onto Jade, amusement in their depths.

"I have a feeling I know what you're about to ask, so I'll just go ahead and say it: yes, those were barriers."

"While I'm amused by your answer, my actual question is actually how many types of barriers can you use?"

"What do you mean by that, Colonel? Isn't there only one type?" Anise inquired.

The violet and black haired female sighed heavily, like this wasn't the first time she's had to answer this type of question before. "Originally there was one, maybe two types of barriers. The problem with those barriers though, was that they tended to only be usable by seventh fonists. Which then makes it extremely difficult for all of the militaries around when there aren't that many seventh fonists around; plus most of them tend to go and be scorers or something of the like in Daath."

"Yeah, I remember something about this," Asch cut in. "Around seventeen years ago a fonist by the name of Lista created theories around the other six fonons being able to use their own barriers. Using those theories, the fonist was able to create all sorts of different barriers, which was easier for people to learn and they could also be applied to objects so someone who wasn't a fonist could use them. I also recall one of the theories was tested so that the barriers could be used to a larger extent if multiple fonists activated a barrier from an object at the same time.

"Correct," Jade agreed. "However, not many people have learned multiple forms of barriers, or are able to use them very quickly. Barriers take a significant amount of concentration, so moving around tends to have the barrier artes backfire. So I find it increasingly interesting that Lillium was able to not only wield two types of barriers, but also to use them in quick succession and was able to form them in two different manners, so to speak."

"Just how many can you use?" Natalia asked Lillium.

Jade had pretty much figured it out during the fight; he had just wanted to ask a couple of question as confirmation. It was the reason she seemed so familiar. Like Asch, though he wasn't sure where the red head might've heard this information, he had read some articles in the past about the working of barriers. He'd even considered bringing in the barrier worked on some of his experiments. That idea had then been shoved aside and ignored the moment he decided to place the ban on fomicry. Since then he hadn't really thought of bringing in the person who had created the artes for newer forms of barriers. After all, it wasn't like the artes behind the barriers hadn't been shared. So he actually hadn't even needed the creator, anyone who had learned an exponential amount of barriers would've worked.

"You know what," the barrier worked in front of him sighed again. She then tilted her head to the side and placed her hand on her hip. "Hi, my name is Lillium Lista, I created the theories behind and the artes for barriers and can use any form of barrier excluding those made up of the seven fonon. Can we drop this now?"

Jade noticed that Valeria didn't seem all the surprised about her admission, though the rest of the group was.

"Seriously?!"

"Whoa!"

"I'm impressed; you don't look like the type of person to be a scientist."

"That's funny, coming from you, since you don't seem to be the type of person to actually keep his cool over your troops without screwing everything up." Lillium countered Asch, an annoyed look on her face as she tried to bait the God General.

While this exchange amused him, Jade had a feeling that if it was left unchecked, it would get into a full blown argument between the two that might even come to blows. And though Asch could probably hold his own, they still didn't know a whole lot about Lillium, nor did they know if she was holding back any more power.

Valeria seemed to realize they might fight as well, since she suddenly leaned against Asch, attempting to place her arm on his shoulder. It might've worked, and it might've looked relaxed, if she wasn't so much shorter than he was. Instead she had to place her arm against his arm.

"A lot of her barriers are impressive; remember how you asked me earlier how I knew she was here? I didn't think she was going to be willing to share who she was, so I lied, kind of—"

"What she means, is that using two types of fonons in a barrier can change its disposition. By doing so, I can have barriers do a couple of nifty effects, like alerting me when someone passes through it or having an attack be reflected back against an opponent while also dealing additional elemental damage."

That explained a lot. He'd noticed a couple of times during their original trek through the caverns that Valeria had been looking around and also hissing a couple of times. Apparently she'd actually felt the fonons within the barriers when they'd walked through them since she knew what to look for.

That, plus the first of the flames barriers, which she had used to protect Anise and himself, had turned the creature's attack back on it whereas the one that exploded once Anise had gone flying back had only shot fire out instead of sending the creature's attack back with it.

"However," Lillium interjected. "There are draw backs to using combined barriers, sometimes if you don't time it just right they can explode in your face or work for your opponent instead. Even though I created a lot of the artes and theories, I sometimes have trouble with them. It truly just depends on the situation and how much energy you spend on each barrier, which can drain you if you try and keep them up continuously."

"Still! That's amazing! Could you teach me some barrier artes?!"

It seemed to amuse Lillium when Anise got so excited, but she shook her head. "I doubt it. First off, I'm not going with you all, remember? I only came here collect information and now I'm going to be headed out to Grand Chokmah after this, which I doubt you all are heading there right now. Second, it actually takes some times to get the theory right if you've never done anything like it before."

"Aw man!"

"Enough, we've spend enough time here, let's get moving!"

Everyone watched as Asch moved past them. Both Valeria and Lillium were smirking as the red head continued towards the Tartarus. "I think I hurt his feelings."

Valeria's only response was to snicker while Jade had to hold in a groan, the two of them got along too well.

* * *

**So, what do you think of Lillium? Anyone figure out her role yet? Like her abilities? Or how she can obviously annoy Asch at the drop of a hat?**


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N:**

**RK: Okay, this is REALLY late! I'm seriously sorry about that, I had it mostly ready to post, just a couple of fixes that needed to be done (which is done now) but I'd forgotten. It's ready now!**

**And I have one other thing I'd like to say. I'm actually participating in NaNoWriMo this month so I'm hoping to have more written for the story, especially since Mara pretty much handed me the reigns for the story until the end of the month. Which brings me to something I want to ask. Since I'm doing this, even though I'm definitely falling behind..., I wanted to know opinions, would you like to have us post chapters more often (like once every two weeks) and then possibly risk us running out of chapters on the off chance we both get busy (which might happen in January if I can write more and we might be getting busy around the holiday time) or do you just want us to keep posting once a month (which should have us good until at least March)?**

**Mara: Either way works for us, though I doubt RK will be able to finish NaNoWriMo, sadly.**

**RK: You be quiet! Anyway, hopefully you like the chapter! Let us know what you want us to do!**

* * *

Valeria jolted awake instantly the moment someone placed their hand on her shoulder. Blinking she noticed it was Jade and relaxed a little, groaning as she turned to put her face back against Nyla.

"We're almost to the port; we'll need you to help dock."

With that, he walked back to his station.

Sighing, and wishing she could just go back to sleep, the blonde rolled off Nyla and looked around to get her bearings.

Days before, they'd left Lillium standing at the entrance of Ortion Cavern. The older female hadn't been surprised when an earthquake had suddenly started, not even needing to brace herself like most of the others had had too. And when Valeria had offered her a ride to one of the ports along the way, she'd turned it down with the statement that she wasn't planning on going directly to Grand Chokmah yet. With those parting words and no other boat or ship visible, Valeria had only one thought on where the barrier worker would be going.

Not that it mattered to her at the moment. She knew she'd seem Lillium again. After all, what good was a favor if it couldn't be used?

After she'd walked off, the rest of the group had decided on heading to Daath, mostly due to Ion wanted to do something about what's been going on. So he planned on issuing a proclamation, and since Anise was his guardian, she had to go with. Natalia wasn't entirely needed for the proclamation, though Ion had commented that she might be useful, but apparently the Princess had her own reasons for wanting to go to Daath, so she decided to head there as well.

Then of course, Asch had decided that he wanted to get some things from Daath, he'd also added that the moment they arrived at Daath he would be leaving.

So to Daath was the final decision, no matter what else Valeria might've wanted. Not that she cared, she could totally escape in Daath; Jade had no clue about half of what went on around there.

Jade had agreed to this decision, which was good since he was the only one, other than Valeria, who knew how to operate the Tartarus fully; so once Valeria had messed with a couple of their terminals, they'd left.

During the voyage, Valeria had continued to toy with some of the unused terminals, halfway tempted to see if she could make the others figure out how to use more than one. Or rather, she had been toying with the idea until the red eyed jerk realized just how tired she was.

She'd let all the others, including him, have a break for some sleep during their voyage and hadn't really allowed herself the same luxury. So when he'd noticed just how dazed she was, he'd ordered her to sleep for the night.

A night which had somehow turned to meaning half of the day as well, she realized when she looked out her window. The sun was high in the sky, so she'd had more sleep now than she normally got, though she'd admit she felt much better now.

Standing and stretching, the blonde padded over to her terminals and began flipping switches and getting them ready for their arrival.

After they'd docked and Jade managed to convince the port director to let them borrow their engineers to do a basic cleaning and checkup of the Tartarus, Asch left them without even saying goodbye. Valeria didn't say anything as she watched him walk away, something the others didn't notice. She knew she'd be seeing the red head again, even if he didn't want her bothering him. For now, she decided, she'd just stay with Jade and see what kind of mischief she could get into.

After all, the group had finally gotten around to filling her in on what had been going on, though she had been able to piece some parts together herself. But all in all, the situations piqued her interest, and she had nothing better to do so why not stay with them?

That and she figured that if she got even more juicy info, she could give it to Lillium and who know how much more information would open up to her as well.

Her musings aside, Valeria noticed how quiet the port was. Normally at this time of day there was a lot more going on, so even though it seemed rather loud to others, it wasn't as loud as it normally could be. Something was up, that was for sure.

Nyla rumbled softly as Valeria dropped from the Arka's back, silencing when the blonde placed her hands on the canine's mane to steady her. The two of them shared a look before slowing down a little, allowing the rest of the group to gain a small amount of distance.

Ion and Natalia were leading, talking about some of the things that Ion wanted in the proclamation with Jade and Anise walking a couple feet behind them. Jade appeared to not care much about what the two were talking about, though Valeria knew he was listening carefully and filing the information away. Anise, Valeria knew, didn't care about what was said and instead was walking without a care in the world.

Jade seemed to realize Valeria and Nyla had slowed since he turned back towards them. However, the moment he did, Oracle Knights rounded the corner in front of Ion and Natalia, cutting them off while others started falling in behind everyone.

Hissing under her breath, Valeria sprang forward. "Nyla, get Jade! Meet up by the tree!"

The Arka growled in agreement and dodged a swing of one of the soldiers before twisting in the air and kicking back, knocking the soldier backwards and into three others.

Valeria looked away from the Arka as she reached Jade, focusing on her own problem. Anise was her mission, and the Guardian seemed to have decided to fight back like an idiot. Valeria knew that the Knights had planned this, how else was it so dead and quiet on a normally busy street in the middle of the day? Van or Mohs likely wanted Ion out of the picture for the moment and had sent these Knights to collect him.

Dodging a strike from her own attacker, Valeria reached Anise and looped her arms around Anise's waist to drag her back. The moment she tried though, Anise began fighting her and struggling. Valeria hissed at her to stop and that surprised Anise enough that Valeria managed to pull her far enough away from the fight that Nyla and Jade had got in.

She knew they'd get out momentarily, Nyla had mostly been causing trouble so Valeria could get Anise.

Who looked like she wanted to turn around.

"They won't hurt Ion and they can't get away with harming Natalia should it come out that she actually survived Akzeriuth. However, us on the other hand? They want us dead, now follow me!"

With that Valeria ducked down another pathway into a back passage that was too small for armor wearing knights to fit through. Anise followed her thankfully, which meant she didn't have to turn back for her so Valeria continued down the passage until she had to turn down another one, continuing through many other passages before finally making it out of the port town. By that time Anise looked mad and she rounded that anger on Valeria.

"Why did we run? We could've taken them!"

"Are you really that stupid?" Valeria asked the girl. She'd assumed the girl was smarter than that.

"What's what supposed to mean!?"

Valeria sighed. "Those Oracle Knights had set that trap up. Obviously the rest of the port town's citizens had been told to stay inside unless absolutely necessary. Had we attacked, the citizens would've gotten involved and would have seen us attacking Oracle Knights. It would've ended badly for all of us, especially since most of our group aren't from Daath and we're on the Order's home turf."

Anise stopped looking so angry then, groaning and pulling on her pig-tails. "But I let them take Ion!"

"Yeah, and we'll get him back. Once there aren't as many civilians in the way. Now come on, we're almost to the rendezvous point."

Anise picked up the pace and soon they were in sight of a large willow tree on the outskirts of the town. Lying at its base was Nyla and next to the Arka was an annoyed looking Jade, neither of them looking any worse for wear. He appeared to be trying to talk to Nyla but the Arka wasn't listening.

"—rescue them."

Valeria laughed as she walked up to them. "You do realize that she doesn't take orders from you, right?"

Jade looked over at them and a relieved look crossed his face before disappearing just as fast as it had shown up. "Ah good, I'd been afraid it was only Nyla and I who'd gotten away."

"Uh huh, suuuure." Valeria muttered, going to Nyla and digging through a bag to pull out some jerky. She passed it to the Arka who happily began chewing on it. "Good job, and thanks for the cover."

"Ah, I wondered why Nyla waited so long to grab me and get away." Jade sighed. "Anyway, now it appears we must rescue Natalia and Ion. I suspect you knew they wouldn't risk harming either of them, Valeria?"

"Yeah, the rest of us were fair game though, but if I'm right, I don't think the civilians were in on it, so the Tartarus should be fine, for now. Right now we need to focus on getting those two out."

"Thoughts?"

Valeria pulled out her own snack and laid back on Nyla, suddenly tired for some reason. "Well, so far as I know there probably aren't any Malkuth soldiers stationed anywhere nearby…"

"Guy should be nearby, he said he wanted to wait for Luke to come back up," Jade told her, not knowing she'd already heard that from the blond. "If he's in Aramis Spring, we could use the backup."

Valeria nodded, it sounded good. "I might have someone in the city that could help, but it's a shot in the dark, so to speak."

"I could snoop around and see what I can find on Ion," Anise suggested.

Glancing towards the north, Valeria contemplated that. They were closer to Aramis Spring than they were Daath, but if Nyla were to run most of the way to the city with Anise and Valeria on her back then they would probably make it there right as Jade made it to the Spring. And with the amount of time left over from him collecting Guy and making his way to the city, she might be able to find out her own information.

It could work.

"Nyla, Anise and I will head to the city, you meet up with us once you get backup. Aramis Spring is north and a little east of here along the mountains. You can't miss it."

Jade nodded. "Good luck on your end."

"You too. C'mon Anise, Nyla. Let's go."

* * *

The tall archway in front of her seemed to be taunting her, the ravens carved discreetly into the two pillars almost seemed like they were laughing.

After ditching Anise at the entrance of the city, the blonde had turned towards the deeper areas of the city that most people tend to turn a blind eye too. The archway she stood in front of was the entrance to this city's Underworld, which most people tended to ignore. After all, the last several blocks before this were so beaten down and disgusting that most people turned away before they made it this far.

So no one really knew this was back here; unless you knew exactly what to look for.

Nyla grumbled softly at her side, still tired from the run she'd made from the port to the city. That, coupled with Valeria's fear that people might not give answers if she brought the Arka with her, had her telling Nyla to stay out here. Not that she wasn't allowed, Valeria just figured it'd be easier if she left the Arka out here.

Something the Arka wasn't happy about.

Not that she was happy about it either.

But that didn't make it any easier for her to actually set foot on the other side.

Taking a deep breath, Valeria patted Nyla on the head and began walking, taking the twists and turns of blocks to finally reach the Underworld. Clean walkways and nice architecture met her after her third turn, looking much nicer and cleaner than some of the other locals of the city. Around all the streets people were lounging on couches similar to the ones in Batical, all set up under awnings, there were bettings going on in the streets on different sorts of games of chance.

A couple of people seemed to eye Valeria as she walked past, head held high, gaze focused on one of the larger buildings in this part of the city.

Two people stepped in her way right before she entered the tavern, their eyes narrowed on her. One of them sneered at her while the other looked bored, his tone relaying said boredom when he addressed her. "Crows feast."

"Ravens seek," Valeria responded, her answer immediate to the shortened version of the Underworld's code. Though she wasn't sure why they asked her this now instead of at the entrance archways.

They didn't bother her after that and let her pass, whether it's because she knew the code or because they might've already heard about her from Noir, she wasn't sure. But she was sure that if she caused some sort of trouble they would have no problem coming and collecting her, as they followed her inside.

Walking in, Valeria coughed at the smoke billowing from all the corners of the room, waiving her hand to alleviate the smell. Clusters of people were huddled at all the tables and almost filled the entire bar where a female bartender was quick to fill drinks and other orders from the waitresses who were scattered throughout the patrons.

She was almost tempted to get a drink but instead she turned her attention to the back of the tavern where a different type of group was located.

Weaving around the many patrons, she approached the group of black clad group that lounged in the furthest part of the room.

Thinking back to the information on the papers the Ant Lion Man had given her, she knew who exactly was in charge of this area of the Underworld.

Anyone in the Underworld could go to any city and get work, but no matter where it is, there is always a single group leading the comings and goings within the city. And those who come to the city have to follow the Leader's command, even if they're not within that actual group. Orders might even come from stand in leaders, seeing as true Leaders can't be everywhere at once.

Where Batical was governed by the Black Market and Belkend is controlled by the scientists of Fomicry and the Fon Techies, Daath was under the command of the Assassins.

And they were the ones who cared the least about what actually goes on in their cities, instead taking a back seat unless they actually had to get involved. Though they were also the ones who demanded the most obedience, ignoring their orders could literally mean life or death.

Before she could actually reach them, Valeria felt a knife being pressed against her neck. "Well, well, well, what's a cute little initum like you doing in a place like this?"

Not moving an inch, Valeria flicked her eyes to the one holding the knife. "I came to see who's in charge."

"Oh yeah, little initum? What makes you think you can see our Leader?" Blue eyes danced with mischief beneath the black mop of hair on the male's head. He looked familiar, though Valeria didn't know why. All she knew was that she had to keep from freaking out from how close he was.

"What's an initum?" Valeria asked, deciding to play along.

"A initum is what you are, for you are a initum! One who has slowly sunk their teeth into the Underworld with a craving for more—"

"Azra, enough, let the girl go," a female voice ordered from the center of the group in the back. "It's rather obvious she doesn't like to be in close quarters with males."

The knife was withdrawn immediately and he stepped away from her, allowing Valeria to get her first good look at him. And then her eyes widened. "You! You're the one who fought with Aeron at the tournament years ago!"

"Azra of the Assassins, at your service."

Valeria eyed him carefully. The only reason this guy had bothered to fight Aeron was because the dread headed male had been toying with her the day of her last and hardest fight, when the Assassin had placed a large bet on her. In fact, the only other two who'd bet on her was Aeron and Kadaj, and they had been ordered to do so, and their winnings had been staggering.

Winnings that they'd almost failed to get when she'd nearly lost since the damage that Aeron had done was messing with her.

Azra seemed to realize she was hesitating to move forward, since he handed his knife to her, handle first.

A shock, that was for sure, an assassin who hands over any of their blades like this was pretty much saying that you're under their protection while you hold their blade. It was a huge deal in the assassin clans, it meant no other assassin was allowed to target the wielder for fear of retribution.

So either he felt bad, or the assassin might be playing a game with her.

But still, it made her feel better, since she was safe from at least this part of the Underworld for now.

"Now that that's done, Azra bring her over here. I'm curious to see what's happened to the tournament's favorite pet."

Valeria flinched at the term yet relented when Azra led her through the mass of assassins to stand before what looked to be the leader. Like the others, black covered the woman's frame, olive skin only visible from her neck and above, long hair tied back. Yet unlike the rest of the members of the group, this woman was wearing sleek tempered black metal armor on her shoulders and chest.

The woman's hazel eyes looked Valeria up and down before smirking and looking at the man sitting to her left, eyes still focused on the blonde. "Can you believe the pet has come this far? To think we'd have her standing in front of us as if a master."

Straightening, and ignoring the laughter from those surrounding them, Valeria looked the woman in the eye. "The masters must not be all that powerful if they feel threatened by a former pet."

"Oooh! I like this pet!" The woman laughed, the laughter making Valeria know that she kept the 'former' out of her sentence on purpose.

Cocking her head to the side, Valeria placed a hand on her hip. "Then again, I have heard that the masters have lost their touch in recent years. After all, one would think they wouldn't allow one of their own members to wreak havoc on the Unknowns?"

The laughter left the woman just as quickly and she sat forward, elbows resting on her knees. "Well then, former pet, what name do you go by now? Since it is clear you're not going to allow me to play my games."

Normally, Valeria would've let the woman play her games, especially since most of the Pieces within the Underworld tend to dance around and avoid answers by asking more questions. The leaders of the cities were no different, that being especially true when it comes to the Leaders, the higher ups in charge of all the members of their groups.

And going along with all the games and thinking up good comebacks helps to keep others off of you in the long run. But Valeria knew this would take a while just to get her point across as well as to see if she could get the information she needed.

"My name is Valeria," the blonde told them, nodding her head in an informal bow. "Pleased to meet you."

"That's rather amusing, 'Valeria' means 'survivor' in Ancient Ispanian, if my translation is correct." The woman's eyebrow rose and a smirk crossed her face. "Well Valeria, may the shadows guide your blade. My name is Nyx, what have you come to see me for?"

Valeria felt the blood leave her face. Nyx?! Nyx is the name of the Leader of the Assassins!

It was suddenly clear why the woman had been toying with her. Leaders didn't get to be where they were without knowing how to play these games. Knowing dangerous information wasn't just enough, they had to know how to test others and to know how people will react long before they actually do. Testing people is like second nature, to measure worth and to see if they're usable at a later date.

Nyx had been trying to see her worth.

And Valeria had probably failed the test.

Valeria would just have to worry about the ramifications of that at a later date. For now, she needed whatever she could get from this woman who led all of those here in Daath's Underworld.

"I'm a member of survivors from Akzeriuth, other members being Colonel Jade Curtiss of Malkuth, Princess Natalia Luzu Kimlasca Landvalder, and Asch the Bloody. As well as Fon Master Ion and his Guardian Anise Tatlin," Valeria explained. She noticed Nyx sat straighter when she mentioned Ion, the Assassin's mouth tightening. "We arrived at Daath this morning and as we made our way out of the port we were attacked by Oracle Knights who then kidnapped the Princess, and the Fon Master."

The Assassin Leader leaned back into her chair, for all intense and purposes she looked relaxed, until you saw her eyes, which had gained a hard edge to them. "Yes, I'd heard about the fall of the mining city. As well as those who survived, three of which you didn't mention just now. I guess I am to assume they split from your group?"

Valeria started to answer but Nyx waived her hand. "It matters not, but answer me this little initum, why would the Oracle Knights kidnap the Fon Master in broad daylight?"

"Are you really asking me that? You have to know that neither Mohs nor Van are happy with how the Fon Master has been acting, with what he's been doing. So you can't tell me that they wouldn't set it up so that they could grab the Fon Master before he can set anything else up."

Nyx sighed, obviously annoyed when Valeria messed up another game. She snapped her fingers and an Oracle Knight soldier, who Valeria hadn't seem until then, ran over from the bar. "Get a full report from Ven, return here. Speed and accuracy, now go."

The soldier all but bowed before running out to door to follow the female's command. The assassin's gaze then fell back on Valeria and she flicked her hand lazily towards the bar. "Drink, relax, or whatever. Once my information is brought back, I'll make my decision. I have no doubt that your little group will be attempting a rescue, we'll just have to see how much we'll help, or if we'll interfere. Now go, don't leave the tavern."

Knowing better than to argue, Valeria nodded and went back to the main part of the tavern. Her heart was pounding in her chest and she was worried she might've just botched the entire visit.

All she could do now, was wait.

* * *

**Hope you like this look inside the Underworld! Let us know what you want us to do!**


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N:**

**RK: We hope you enjoy, that is all I got for the moment. So yeah, enjoy!**

* * *

"She's ready for you."

Valeria jolted out of her thoughts to look at Azra, who was currently paying the bartender for the blonde's water.

An hour earlier, the soldier had left the tavern, he'd just got back and had rushed over to Nyx. The two of them had been having a hushed conversation for the past ten minutes. It had amused Valeria to note that those surrounding the Leader were pretending to not be a part of the conversation, though the blonde knew that if Nyx ordered it, they wouldn't hear a damn thing. From what she could understand, there were a couple of times when an assassin would take out other assassins for not following rules, but it doesn't happen often.

Standing, Valeria followed Azra back to where Nyx waited for them.

"Something you said has been bothering me, initum. You said that one of our own was interfering with Unknowns, who and what are you talking about?"

"Um…" That wasn't what she had been expecting once being called back over here. "Well… I ran into Aeron before Akzeriuth and he said that they'd joined the Knights. And knowing him, he meant the rest of their group as well."

Nyx's eyes grew murderous and suddenly everyone found something else to be looking at or focusing on, none of them wanting to get on the bad side of the woman in front of them. She growled under her breath a few times before her gaze fell again on Valeria, who had to stifle the urge to back away from the assassin in front of her.

"Speak your request before I make my decision about the Fon Master. The other matter will be handled internally and will be of no concern to you."

Valeria wanted to ask what she meant but knew better. "As you guessed, my group which consists of myself, Jade Curtis, Anise Tatlin, Guy Cecil and whoever else Jade manages to get, are going to conduction a rescue to get Princess Natalia and Fon Master Ion. Right now, Anise is attempting to locate information on where the two of them are being kept, though my money is on the Oracle Headquarters. We can probably get inside on our own, but once inside, all bets will be off, since we won't know exactly where they are. My request is for some intel on the inside, that way we can get the Fon Master as soon as possible and get out before all hell breaks loose on us."

Nyx leaned back in her chair, arms crossed against her chest. She sat still for a couple of minutes, just staring at her. Valeria shifted uncomfortably, not used to having someone stare at her like this for long periods of time.

"I've decided." Nyx snapped her fingers and the Oracle Knight from earlier came back. "As you should know, the Underworld supports the Fon Master first and foremost, so the fact that the Grand Maestro is trying to usurp his power cannot be ignored. However, We cannot interfere in the way things are run on the Surface."

Valeria clenched her fist and opened her mouth but the look the Assassin sent her had the blonde gulping and silencing herself.

"But, since it shall not be Us interfering, since as I said We are not allowed to interfere, then those within our world shall do nothing to stop those who will do what they must against the situation."

Breathing out a sigh of relief, Valeria started to smile. "Tha—"

"Do not thank me yet initum, for it will not be as easy as you think. Our members inside will not attack, but at the same time they are under no obligation to help you other than to leave you alone and let you pass. You will have to find your own way inside and once you do, they will only help the 'Wingless Angel', or they will attack intruders, your choice." Nyx stood and glanced at the Oracle Knight. "Spread my orders, and make sure they're all ready by the time her group is inside."

If the assassin said anything else, Valeria didn't hear.

Nyx had said Wingless Angel...

* * *

Valeria pushed open the double doors into the Cathedral, only taking one final look back at Nyla, who was lying next to her favorite fountain.

The two of them had once again come to the conclusion that the Arka needed to be out of the picture, especially since what Valeria needed was stealth. So after making their way through Daath and to the Cathedral, Nyla had wandered over to a fountain a couple of stair flights down.

She'd made good time, since the moment she made it through the doors, the others were reaching the bottom of the stairs from the main sanctuary.

"Valeria, I wondered when you'd show up."

Rolling her eyes at Jade's words, Valeria's gaze fell on both Tear and Asch's replica. She supposed that it wasn't that much of a surprise that they were here, Guy had been going to get the replica after all. The one good thing was the extra man power, but Valeria wasn't sure how much Luke might've changed since Akzeriuth.

"Tear, Replica, what a surprise!" Valeria watched as Luke flinched at the term she used, and also noticed that Jade's eyes narrowed at her tone.

Tear, however, frowned at her. "Valeria, that is—"

"He can speak for himself, you know. I doubt I'll be the only one to speak as such to him." Valeria cut in, letting the meaning behind her words sink in. "I honestly have no problem with the replica. And since Asch doesn't seem to care enough to take back his old life, or his old name, now that it's out in the open, who am I to open this can of worms?"

Luke's eyes were wide at this point, "Valeria, I—"

"Don't say anything that resembles thanks, I'm just giving my opinion on the matter. Besides, you're seven, I shouldn't expect huge things from a seven year old." Valeria reached around and yanked Luke's cut hair before walking towards the entrance to the Headquarters. "Anyway, I managed to get some help on the inside, if you've found a way in that is."

Tear frowned, voicing her concerns which stopped Valeria in her tracks. "Well we did get permits for us, but how is it you got help?"

"Don't worry about it," Valeria waived her hand. "We might have to fight a little bit once we're inside, I'm not sure how much help I scored."

"I suppose that should be good enough, let's continue." Jade ordered.

Valeria agreed with that statement and turned on her heel to lead the way towards the Oracle Knight's Headquarters, ignoring Anise's questions about how she knew where it was. Valeria had to admit, there were a lot of twists and turns that led to the entrance, so she supposed normal civilians wouldn't be able to find the place.

Once they'd been allowed inside due to the permits, Valeria paused. Her gaze fell to rest on the long black glove covering her right arm from hand to elbow.

When was the last time she'd actually taken it off? She honestly couldn't remember.

It had been a long time, that was most definitely for sure.

Wingless Angel…

Gritting her teeth, Valeria knew she had to do this if she was to get the help they required. Slipping her fingers under the top of the glove, she released the clips on the strands that held it to her arm and slowly began to pull the glove off.

Jade was the first one to look at her, surprise in his eyes. Valeria knew that he'd never actually laid eyes on her arm while it was uncovered. The first time she'd ever met Jade it had been covered in blood and then in bandages. And the moment she was able, she'd stolen long gloves that hid that part of her body from prying eyes.

Even now, after all the time it's been covered, she's never been able to get the image out of her mind whenever she happened to glance down.

By now, the rest of the group had looked to see what she'd stopped to do and their looks ranged from shock to horror filled.

Valeria knew what they were seeing. Pale skin, discoloration and raised skin as well as sunken carved markings. From where her fingers met her hand and leading all the way up to her elbows the markings had been etched carefully yet brutally into the flesh and skin of her arm. Curving lines wrapped around her entire wrist shaped oddly like brutalized angel wings, one of the oddly shaped wings longer than the other, the shorter looking to be sheared apart.

"Valeria…" Jade breathed, his eyes locked on her arm.

Tear had her hand held in front of her mouth. "What happened…?"

Face flushing, Valeria dropped her gaze to the ground and walked past all of them. "I don't want to talk about it, let's just go…"

Jade grabbed her shoulder before she could pass him, his red eyes held hers and she knew she was the only one to see all the questions within their depths.

"….I'll explain later, okay?" Valeria turned away. "Just know that there are people in here who won't attack because I'm showing off my scars, let's go."

It was obvious they wanted to question her, but time was of the essence. Valeria wasn't sure how many people would be following Nyx's order, or whether or not the order had a time stamp. They also had the possibility that someone high up in the chain of command would come check up on the two prisoners. So they really did have to hurry.

Their group walked some ways and checked two rooms out before they came across the first group of soldiers, who hadn't turned out to be very friendly. Guy, Luke and Valeria had made quick work of them until Tear got involved and sang one of her hymns, allowing them to knock soldiers out without too much damage.

After skirting around a couple more corners they ran into yet another small group of soldiers. They had gotten ready to fight, that is until one of the men had looked at Valeria's arm and muttered under his breath about her being the 'Wingless Angel'. The soldiers were the first to put their weapons away, the one who'd spoken nodding to Valeria before the three of them wandered down another corridor.

Their group stayed ready for another minute or so, half worried that the soldiers would turn around and come back. Though when Valeria said that they wouldn't, they finally moved onward to the next corridor and checked the final couple of rooms on the first floor.

It went on like this for the next floor as well, they'd occasionally run into some soldiers they'd have to knock out if possible or even kill if need be, sometimes run into soldiers who would look the other way and they'd check the rooms for the chance that they'd run into Ion or Natalia. The blonde noticed that Luke seemed to be more relieved than anyone else when they didn't have to attack and possibly kill any of the soldiers.

Maybe he felt guilty?

They'd finished with the third and were heading down the stairs to the fourth level when a sword was suddenly thrust around the corner of the stairs that stopped inches away from Valeria's throat, the blonde having been in the lead in case they ran into more soldiers.

"What was it? Hmm, oh yes, I believe it was 'Let the Wingless Angel pass'. In addition to that, there are orders to 'Not interfere' or something along those lines, I honestly can't remember…" came an annoyed tone from the other end of the blade. From around the corner, a white haired male stepped into view, his weapon withdrawn moments after his appearance as his eyes swept Valeria's form. "Who'd've thought the Wingless would end up being you, I have to say, I'm actually annoyed with that. Thought for sure it would be someone, anyone but you… But I suppose orders are orders, huh?"

Valeria recognized him almost immediately; she had spent a lot of time with Dist after all and therefore knew the lilac haired man's soldiers. What she hadn't ever realized was that Ven was a part of the Underworld. Sure, she'd heard the name earlier when dealing with Nyx but she honestly hadn't put two and two together. Besides, she actually knew two other people who had the name Ven, she just didn't like those two.

"Ven, why are you here?!"

"Eh, I got injured a while ago and was moved from my position under Dist to a station here until I'm fully healed. Or at least, that was the case until I was asked, or rather, ordered to remain here for some time. So as of right now, I'm one of the Captains in charge of training new recruits for a group of soldiers who are either under Mohs' thumb or under Van's thumb. Whatever the case, I'm not happy about it at all."

During his little spiel, the others seemed to come to the conclusion that Ven was actually a friend instead of an enemy. Not that they would've been able to do much if he wasn't, since the white haired male apparently worked for Nyx. Those who worked under Nyx in the Underworld had some serious skill, whether that skill was visible or not. You don't get to become an assassin just for the hell of it, a lot of hard work and training has to be done and your abilities get put to the test consistently before you're a full fledged assassin. If your abilities aren't up to snuff, then you run the risk of botching a mission which could either get yourself killed, or you might accidentally reveal information about the Underworld.

A big huge no no, punishable by severe torture followed by an even more painful and gruesome death.

Two things bothered her though, about Ven being a part of the Underworld. The first thing that was odd to Valeria was that if Ven was a part of the Oracle Knights, especially if he was a Captain, then how was it that Nyx didn't know about Aeron being a part of the Knights now. The other thing… "If you're under orders not to get involved, why are you talking to me right now?"

"Well, let's think about this. If you just waltz around in her without someone escorting you then we'll all get in trouble for failing to actually patrol. And frankly, most of the men following this order can't get in any more trouble or else it's my head since I'm the one in charge at the moment. This way, it's less stress on all of us; no one will bat an eye about me bringing people in here, it isn't the first time, and if they do get all annoyed, I'll set them straight."

"So no matter what you're risking your head so why not let the little guys go?"

"Pretty much. Now, come along, you're here for the Princess and Fon Master right? They're down another level."

Throughout the conversation, Valeria noticed the rest of the group had been looking around in concern, as if thinking it was a trap or something. However when they heard the others were close, each of them seemed to get a second wind.

Valeria had been noticing that the further they went in the Headquarters, the more tired or annoyed some of them were. Anise had seemed uneasy, as had Tear to some degree. Maybe the two of them didn't want to fight their comrades, Valeria didn't know. Luke's reasoning for being uneasy was clear, he had suddenly gained a conscience or something. Not that he'd seemed to want to fight people anyway, from what she could remember. The only two people besides herself who didn't seem to mind, was Guy and Jade. Jade for obvious reasons but Valeria wondered what Guy was thinking through it all.

With Ven taking the lead, they made their way down to the next level and through a door into a long hallway. While walking through the hallway they ran into two more patrols, luckily the moment they saw Ven in the lead their interest was lost and they'd moved on even faster than when Valeria had been leading.

Ven led the way to the second to last door and produced a key with a flourish, handing it to Jade before leaning against the wall next to the door. Jade unlocked the door and led the way inside, the rest of them following right behind to make sure the others are inside and okay.

Valeria, not wanting to go inside, had perched next to Ven against the wall, staring at him with a frown on her face.

"Let me guess, you're surprised I never said anything about being part of the Deep, or that I know you were." Ven's head was tilted back against the wall with his eyes closed. The blonde raised her eyebrow since he couldn't have known it was her, though then again, she supposed he wasn't an assassin for nothing.

"You're right, I am curious; I've known you for years and never really suspected. You've even helped me deal with Dist when he's being an idiot—"

"He's always an idiot…"

"—so why did you never say anything? I mean, you know… don't you?" Valeria asked hesitantly.

Ven opened his eyes and looked at her then, a frown on his face as he considered his answer. "Even if I hadn't before, I obviously know now..."

Valeria opened her mouth to snap at him that that wasn't an answer when the door opened on the other side of Ven. Guy and Luke came out first, followed closely by Ion and Natalia, leading Valeria to the conclusion that this was indeed the room they'd been stashed in, not that she had worried; she trusted Ven to an extent. Ion took a look at Valeria and got a surprised look on his face, though she realized that the look only blossomed the moment his green eyes had landed on her uncovered arm.

Eyes widening, and cursing herself for not doing so earlier, the blonde quickly grabbed her glove and put it back on, tying it into place. Something she should've done the moment Ven had joined their little entourage to lead them.

But the deed had been done, Ion had gotten a good look and his gasp told her everything…

"Valeria…? You were a slave…?"


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N:**

**RK: Figured we'd give out a present for the holidays, so I present, Chapter 19! **

**Hope you enjoy it and have a wonderful holiday season, and to all of those who celebrate, Merry Christmas! To those who don't, Happy Hanukah and Merry Kwanzaa! No matter what just have a good holiday and we'll see you in the new year!**

**Mara: What she said, how I'm off to my boyfriend's family and she's off to her family's place. Enjoy your time with the family if you're spending time with them, or enjoy alone time if you've managed to get away from the family, like I almost managed to get out of. **

**RK: Enjoy!**

* * *

Jade stared at Valeria, the blonde's wide panicked eyes locked onto Ion as she stayed rooted to the floor. Clearly she hadn't expected Ion to know and reveal the meaning behind her markings.

But it made a lot of things clear to him now. Never before had he actually seen the markings on her arm. In fact, with how little she cared about her appearance, he'd seen almost everything except the skin under the glove that he knew she'd stolen from her brother.

Even before the glove, it had been bandages; she just kept replacing them until they frayed too much.

In fact it was only because of how her brother kept commenting about how many bandages they went through at their home that she finally relented and grabbed something that would take damage better and wouldn't wear out as often. It only so happened that it was a large glove that she dyed black. Where the smaller glove came from, Jade still wasn't sure, but it had arrived on her being two years after the larger one.

It also explained why she hated it when everyone had tried to control where she was in the past, back before she'd started running off on a whim. Jade grimaced when he recalled the one and only time Peony had tried to lock her in a room for a day; all because of a situation that had been out of all of their control. The amount of noise that came from the room, from the blonde and whatever else she'd managed to get her hands on had caused such a ruckus that they'd gotten fed up and let her out. And all of them had been in shock at the state of the room as she'd made her escape.

All of the items in there had needed to be replaced…

From that day on, they all had come to the conclusion that there was no real way to lock her up without some sort of massive disturbance. And once Nyla was added to that mix, it got even worse.

There were also the couple of times that the Malkuth Military had had to place handcuffs on her. Within the next twenty minutes, if even that amount of time, she'd had them off and on one of the officers surrounding her. She hadn't run off but it had put a lot of the men in a difficult position.

Now, the blonde was clutching her scarred arm, though it was now covered by her glove, and her gaze had hardened as it finally shifted to the floor. Her eyes had also flicked to the white haired male who had led them this far, scowling at him as if he'd caused the situation.

Jade took this to mean she wasn't going to say anything and decided it would be best to move along before their guide got fed up with the looks Valeria was sending him and left them alone to get out of here by themselves.

"We can discuss this at a later time, move along." Jade informed everyone, seeing as how a number of their group looked like they wanted to question Valeria.

The look Valeria gave him was both relieved and angry. Yes, he would be bringing this up at a later date, just not in front of the others. It was about time she gave him some true answers instead of all the half-truths she had in the past.

There weren't any issues getting out of the Cathedral like there was going inside, which was good since Jade had a feeling that if there was then Valeria would've snapped and they would've had bodies on their hands. Neither the blonde nor her white haired companion spoke on the way out though Jade could hear a couple of the others quietly discussing Valeria as if she wasn't right in front of them.

"Ion... Are you sure?"

Ion nodded, his face sad. "Yes, Natalia. I've seen markings like the ones she has on some of our congregation. There's no doubt; according to some of the people who were willing to talk about it, slavers have tendencies to scar their slaves like that so they will always have control over them."

"Wait... The scar markings can control them?" Tear questioned.

"Well, I'm not sure, it might just be for show, but most former slaves told us that when their markings were on show they were treated a lot worse than when they were able to cover them. I am concerned though..."

Natalia looked uncomfortable. "Concerned about what?"

"None of the former slaves have ever had their scar markings anywhere as visible as Valeria's. Normally they scar their backs or stomachs, somewhere that can be hidden when the masters bring their slaves somewhere populated and they don't want anyone to know they have a slave." Ion hesitated, as if unsure of how to phrase his next statement. "But Valeria's was placed on a very visible location, a location that would be on show any time she isn't wearing her glove. It means that her former master didn't care about letting people know that she was his property."

Jade flicked his eyes back up to Valeria, the blonde walking ahead of them with her shoulders hunched down and looked to be staring at the ground instead of ahead since Ven occasionally had to steer her out of the path of a pillar or doorway. It was obvious to him that she was listening to them, probably getting angrier and angrier as they moved along.

"Another thing that I found odd about her markings, they also appeared deeper and seemed to have a different design than I've seen before."

That piqued Jade's interest. "What do you mean, Ion?"

"Well, I didn't get a good look-"

"Enough!" Valeria stopped and turned back to face them. "Stop talking about me like I'm not even here! I was a slave, so what?! It's something from the past that I would very much like to forget, thank you very much! So just drop it and leave me alone!"

"Valeria..."

"No Natalia, I don't need nor do I want your pity! In fact, you know what? Ven, take them out of here. I'm done, I can't stand being around people who do nothing but pity what I've been through. I mean, why do you think I always cover the fucking scars?! Because I hate being reminded!" Valeria dug into her side pouch, pulling out a bottle of water that she threw at Ion's feet. "I made that for you, you know. I had a feeling you needed something to help get your strength up in case we had to rush out of here; but I'm done, good luck going wherever it is you're going. Nyla and I are out!"

Jade cursed softly and made an attempt to grab the blonde but she skirted around his attempt and dashed off into another corridor, leaving everyone standing there in shock.

"Well, some soldiers might've heard that. We need to move along, Ven, would you continue please?" Jade asked, adjusting his glasses as he spoke.

Ven heaved a sigh as they all looked at Jade. Jade knew they were wondering why he'd let her go. And the reason was that he honestly knew he wouldn't be able to catch her; especially in a place she's clearly been before. She'd know more ways to get out that just the way they'd come in, and by the time he found out which one she'd gone through, the blonde would be long gone.

So he had to do the next best thing, move on with what he was able to do and worry about Valeria later.

Ven seemed to realize this, or maybe just wanted to be done with them, since he quickly led the way back out of the Headquarters. The moment they'd walked through the doors to the main part of the Cathedral, the white haired male turned on his heel to head back inside.

"Ven."

"Sorry Colonel Curtis, I don't know where she went. And even if I did, I wouldn't tell you. If anything I should turn on you because of who my superior is within the Knights. But because I owe my allegiance elsewhere and I like the brat a lot as well, since she made being around The Reaper amusing, I'm going to just pretend I haven't seen you. Good luck, but if you come back again, I will not hesitate to attack."

Jade frowned, but knew better than to try again. The young man had given him a couple of pieces of information in his words that he'd have to think about later. For now, he needed to catch up with the others and they all needed to make their way from the city. Then he'd have to make a decision about Valeria.

And hope it's the right one.

* * *

By the time he'd caught up, the rest of them had made it halfway out of the city. Now, they were finally at fourth monument hill, taking a small break to catch their breath. Jade was particularly concerned about Ion, but he seemed no worse for wear as he took another long drink of the bottle Valeria had tossed his way.

Valeria.

He should've stopped the conversation well before she'd gotten involved. Yet since she never speaks of those years, he'd been rather curious about the information Ion had on the matter.

Now he wasn't sure where she was or how to find her. Jade may have a couple of ways to find out information, but he'd never been able to track the blonde when she gets like this.

"Ion, you mentioned before that Valeria's scar markings are different, what did you mean?"

Ion blinked at him, his brow furrowing. "I thought we weren't going to speak of it anymore."

Jade nodded. "Not while she was around. I've known Valeria for a long time and I found out more about her arm from you than she's ever told me. So I would like it if you would elaborate."

"Well… I don't know much else, since not a lot of the former slaves like to talk about it, plus I didn't get a good look… But the markings I've seen before don't look as deep as Valeria's do. They also had the design of full wings, occasionally there might be a link chain connected. Yet…"

"Um…" All eyes fell on Luke. "I couldn't help but stare at it as we walked… The wings looked torn and there was a chain wrapped around her wrist."

Natalia's eyes widened. "What sort of monster would carve that on a person?!"

Jade looked at Natalia, wishing he could say something against that accusation. But in truth, he'd known about slaves in the past, he's even helped a couple when their former masters finally got justice with the law. But he knew the truth of it, no matter how much he wished it could change.

Those monsters are everywhere, especially in the noble class. It may not seem like the nobles to have slaves, but he'd arrested two within the last few months when it finally came out that they'd been beating their normal staff and practically starving their slaves.

And it honestly shouldn't surprise him that Valeria had been a slave until he'd finally rescued her all those years ago. But in truth, and he might blame it on his youth at the time, he'd thought that his platoon had managed to rescue her right after she'd been caught.

That obviously wasn't the case, if how deep her scars are mean anything in that world.

Yet when she'd been released, she hadn't acted subdued in any situation, not counting when too many males got close to her that is.

Which was another thing, maybe her fear of men came from her time among the slavers. Though he really didn't want to think too much about that.

"You were saying Ion?"

"Nothing else," Ion shook his head sadly. "We try not to pry so the Order doesn't know a lot more about their situations."

At least he'd learned something else.

"What are you going to do Colonel? Should we wait for her?" Tear asked.

They shouldn't… "We'll wait for an hour, if only so we can let Ion rest a bit more. But we can't waste any more time than that, just in case we might've been followed."

Tear shook her head. "I think because of Ven, we might not have to worry about that. Not to mention I don't think they could publicly kidnap Ion."

Jade thought about bringing up that they had before, but he knew those were different circumstances. The Knights had obviously thought that plan through, here they wouldn't be able to get away with it.

"But what do we do after we're done waiting?" Anise asked suddenly. "War's about to start and things look seriously bad!"

Luke scratched his head. "Couldn't we just go to Baticul and stop my uncle?"

Tear shook her head at that option. "Have you forgotten? Mohs has His Majesty's ear. It would be running right into enemy territory."

"I'm afraid Tear may be right." Natalia agreed, her face filled with regret. "Father trusts Mohs."

Another thought came to his mind then, something he'd pushed aside when it became clear they'd decided to come to Daath. "I'm also worried about the talk of St. Binah falling."

"Then why don't we petition help from Malkuth's Emperor Peony?" Ion suggested. "He doesn't want war, and he would have gotten word of any signs of Rugnica's collapse."

"Sounds like a plan, once we get done waiting we'll head towards Malkuth!" Anise agreed.

They spent the next hour talking among themselves, and soon the hour was up. As much as he hated to admit it, he didn't want to leave Valeria here, but if she hadn't show up by now, it was likely that she was long gone somewhere else.

Nodding to the others, they all set off. Luke was up front talking with Tear when Guy suddenly joined in the conversation.

"I sure have gotten stronger since I started traveling!" Luke commented.

"Yes, not just your skill in battle, either..." Tear added.

"Huh?"

"You mean he's grown up a little too, right?" Guy asked her.

Tear nodded. "Yes, granted, he still has a ways to go..."

"Indeed, I have learned many things since setting out as well." Natalia added. "Perhaps the greatest change is that I now know how immature I am."

"We've all gained experience and grown up a little, huh?" Anise added, a smile on her face.

Jade had to keep from smiling at this. He knew if Valeria was here that she'd be teasing all of them. Then again, there are a couple of times when she's surprised him by being serious about some subjects. Still, if she wasn't here to do it, someone must.

"What excellent news."

They all suddenly looked back at him, either frowning or cringing at his words. Luke even looked annoyed now.

"How come that sounds so twisted when Jade says it?" Luke asked the others, clearly trying to avoid talking with him.

"Because it's the Colonel." Anise said, as if that explained everything. "What else can you say?"

"No matter how strong, no matter how experienced... Jade will always be Jade."

Jade appreciated Guy's words, but he knew that they all indeed have gotten stronger, which is for the better with what they've gotten themselves into. It still surprised him how he was willingly staying with this group. Normally he wouldn't have anything to do with anyone younger than him, Valeria being the exception since he normally can't get away from her when she feels like bugging him. And to be traveling with them? Peony would be so thrilled; he always says he needs to get out more.

They traveled the rest of the way in occasional bouts of silence, each lost in their own thoughts.

When they reached the port, Anise quickly got a good grip on Ion and Natalia seemed to shy close to Luke for fear of a second attempt at kidnapping. Luckily that wasn't the case and they quickly arrived at the Tartarus.

"Colonel Curtis!" The pier director came over to him. "My men cleaned out as much of the engine as we could but none of our engineers were able to look at it. We've been rather busy lately."

Jade nodded. "That's fine, thank you for your work."

"Good luck and safe travels."

Once he was gone, Jade followed the rest of them onto the Tartarus and made his way to the bridge.

Only to see a blonde head situated at the Chief Officer's station hunched over some papers, the red gold twin tales of the Arka twitching visibly as Nyla snoozed next to her.

He had actually thought that the blonde had left them for good. Or at least for the time being.

"Valeria?!"

The blonde's head shot up the moment she heard Luke call her name and a grimace graced her face. "What took you all so long? You left before us, and even with Nyla running half the way you still should've been here before now."

"The Colonel thought we should wait for you at Fourth Monument Hill." Tear explained, a confused look on her face as she looked between Valeria and Jade.

"What made you want to come back?" Jade asked, since in all honesty he couldn't imagine what would make her suddenly change her mind about helping them.

A flash of silver glinted as the blonde shoved the papers she held back in one of her bags. The fonist then sighed and tilted her head. "I… I decided that I didn't want you telling my brother before I could... And I figured that if I ran off now, then I'd probably not want to show my face anymore and would have to run for the rest of my life. Which would suck."

Before he could ask her something else, she held up a hand. "I know you all have questions, and I'll answer one from each of you with the right to refuse detailed answers."

Jade was actually surprised at that. This was coming from the girl who typically skirted around having to fully answer even the most basic of questions when she didn't want too.

"Was... Was Aeron the one who kept you… as a slave?" Natalia asked hesitantly.

They all seemed to hold their breath as they waited for Valeria to answer, as if they thought she would suddenly change her mind.

However, the blonde just shook her head. "No, Aeron was not my Slave Master, but he is close to him."

When it seemed like she wasn't going to add anything else, Ion stepped forward next. "Some of the members in the Order have markings on them, why are yours so different?"

Valeria scowled, her unmarred hand clutching the covered scars. "Honestly? Because my former Slave Master is a right bastard. He didn't want to hide the fact that he considered me property, he wanted it out there."

There was more to it than that, and it was clear Ion knew it as well. But the Fon Master knew better than to pursue that line of questioning since it would probably make the blonde run off again.

"Who all knows about your past?"

If anyone was surprised by Guy's question, it was definitely Valeria. She'd probably thought they would all focus on getting details about who kept her or what happened. But Jade had a feeling there was a particular reason Guy was asking his question.

"Obviously you all know now," Valeria started, drawing out her answer. "Asch knows as well."

It seemed, if only to him, that she only half answered, the others appeared to think it was a full answer. "Ion mentioned earlier that some of the former slaves mentioned that their scars control them. Is that true, or rather, how is the markings used to control the slaves?"

"Well…" Valeria started to answer Tear. "I don't know for certain but I think it has to do with the Slave Master. When the sigils are carved into a slave's skin, certain artes can be used on the slave to keep them complacent if the right conditions are met. Mine could make me pass out if he applied his hand directly to my marking with no barriers in between, another slave was silenced any time his master snapped his fingers and muttered a word. Certain conditions, different results."

After some silence, Valeria looked at each of them. Luke shook his head, not wanting to know more, Anise didn't seem to have a question either and Natalia appeared too distraught to ask what she wanted to know.

Finally Valeria looked at him, "Well?"

"I'll have to reserve my question till later. We have to move along."

Ignoring the looks of the group, Jade walked over to the Captains station and began booting the system up so that they may begin departure. Valeria shrugged at his comment and began going through the set up she needed to get done at her station.

The others went to their stations as he worked, his thoughts going through what he'd already known, what he'd suspected and the information she'd just shared. There were many things he wanted to know, but since it appeared that she only planned on answering the bare minimum, he needed to chose his question carefully.

And hope she chose to answer him fully when the time came.


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N:**

**RK: So even though it's a bit late: HAPPY NEW YEAR! Hopefully your New Year was a lot better than mine (Mara's sure was, lucky chick...)**

**Anyway! Here's the next chapter, and I'm sad to say that I'm now officially on my own when it comes to writing this story because Mara had to take a step back due to work. Don't worry, I still plan on updating at least once a month, maybe twice if I'm lucky and if I get enough motivation (and get rid of writer's block!) so the story will go on! And occasionally Mara will help me if she can, but just know that it's mostly gonna be me from now on. Isn't that fun!?**

**I digress.**

**Well, that aside, without further ado, here is the next chapter!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Things were going well for them. No one had stopped them from leaving Daath, they were well on their way to Grand Chokmah and Valeria had been coerced into going with the group.

Well, not coerced, but she'd talked with someone on the outside of the situation who had some good advice and had then acted on that advice and shown up before the others had left.

In any case, they were doing pretty good on time since the engines had been looked at while they'd been at Daath. So things were going welll for them, they'd even managed to get some semblance of auto pilot going so that not everyone was needed at a station anymore.

Except for one thing.

Alarms started going off suddenly in the Tartarus as it jerked forcibly to a stop, jolting those who were standing to fall over.

Dashing to her station, Valeria swiped a couple of times at the screen before a message finally popped up indicating what part of the landship the problem was located in.

"You have got to be kidding me!"

Jade had moved over to her station as well and looked over her shoulder. "Come on, we should go check it out."

Biting back a curse, Valeria grabbed one of Nyla's bags and dashed off, calling over her shoulder for Guy to follow behind her as she made a beeline for the main engine room.

As she ran, the blonde began digging around for her bag of tools, not even wanting to bother to see if the engine room workers had what she might need. And just for safety measures, she even pulled out a jumpsuit, pulling off her shirt and untying Asch's tabard to make it easier for herself so she could quickly pull it on the moment she entered the engine room.

The instant flash of heat that hit her when she entered had her cursing up a storm as she quickly changed and ran over to a panel against the wall, tossing her bag out of the way and into a corner. The panel was flashing red and it took a couple of swipes before the screen would finally adjust to her attempts of control.

She heard the door open behind her and without looking called over her shoulder. "Damn it Jade, I thought you were getting the engineers to look at this while in Daath!"

"That was the plan; however none of the engineers could be spared. They only managed to clear out some of the mud that covered the engine."

Valeria cursed as she continued scrolling through the issues on the screen. "Why didn't this alert me….?"

It dawned on her that the system probably had informed her that the engine was at its limit. She vaguely recalled an alert that had popped up only once when they had come back up from the Qliphoth, which she hadn't had a chance to view when Natalia had distracted her.

Cursing again, Valeria tied another hair tie around her hair and moved to another screen a couple of feet away, telling Guy to move down a couple of rows and be ready. "I'm probably going to have to cut power to at least half of the room, which'll put stress on the other engine room, so we're going to have to do this as quickly as we can."

Jade frowned. "Are you sure that's wise?"

"I think she's right Jade, just looking at this connection over here has me a bit worried as well, and I haven't even seen any of the screens she's looked at."

"Guy, what you're standing in front of is the air intake. Some of the pipes there are bent and haven't been giving the engines the correct amount it needs. We need to quickly correct what we can, either using the pipes themselves or using some other materials lying around. Jade! See if you can find me any spare pipes from the stock room two doors back, we'll need them. In about a minute the part of the engine we're going to be attempting to fix first is going to turn off, so hurry!"

Pushing a couple more buttons, Valeria hurried to the other side of the pipe opposite of Guy and scowled at the damage. Pipes had been bent nearly in half and one of them even appeared to have a hole. Tossing a torch to the blond across from her from her tool belt, the fonist knelt down right as the engine came to a stop.

Right as she was about to start fixing it though, the pressure snapped in another valve and the two of them heard a loud snap.

"You have got to be _shitting_ me!"

Ignoring the air valve, the two of them sprang to their feet, Guy immediately shutting off the torch before it could catch on anything and ran over to the broken fuel pump. The pipe connecting to the fuel line had come completely undone, though Valeria had no clear idea on how that had happened. It had obviously been working until this point, though she did recall that a lot of the pipes that the Tartarus is made out of could actually keep going even under strenuous circumstances, if left alone until it was ready to be fixed.

Her turning off the power to the engine was probably what made the pipes want to disconnect when they'd only been holding on by the bare minimum.

Leaving Valeria to believe more issues may very well introduce themselves to them sooner, rather than later.

Covering her face with her arm, she waded through the oil streaming onto the floor until she was right under the hose. Grabbing the wrench from her tool belt, Valeria began tightening the valve to shut off the flow of oil completely so that they could stop the spill from getting any larger and minimize the hazard.

She noticed Guy on the other side of the hose, doing the same with the other valve, though his side didn't seem to be streaming as much as hers.

Finally, between the two of them, they got the oil to stop spraying all over the place right as Jade came back inside carrying an armful of pipes for the air intake. He stood at the door looking at the two of them with a raised eyebrow, and a look that had Valeria flipping him off.

"Did something else go wrong?"

"You know what Jade? Don't talk to me," Valeria hissed at him, annoyed by the tone he'd used. As if he'd known something like this was going to happen when she knew more about these types of things than he did.

"Valeria…"

"No! Don't talk, just go get more piping for over here!"

"So I'm your errand boy now?"

"Seeing as Guy and I know more about fixing things than you? Yes, now go do something useful so we can fix this!"

He set down the pipes he was holding and left, chuckling to himself as Valeria grit her teeth and shook her arms in an attempt to knock off the oil covering them. She looked at the oil covering the ground, slowly going down the drain in the middle of the room, and growled under her breath.

This wasn't going to be fun at all.

If it wasn't one thing, it was another, Valeria realized. She and Guy had finally managed to do a quick patch for the fuel pipe, though they definitely had to look at it once more before they could go on their way, and were about to go back to the air intake with the pipes Jade had brought in when another alarm alerted them to another problem.

The blonde had left Guy to deal with the air intake, since it could be done with one person while another did a different task it would just take longer, and had run over to the main system panel.

She was currently staring at it in disbelief before whirling around, grabbing a random tool from her belt and began hitting it against the wall while screaming loudly and cursing so much that Guy stopped what he was doing to stare at her with his mouth dropped open.

Even Jade, who was used to her occasional foul language, was looking at her in shock.

Valeria didn't care; she'd also lost count, though it was probably well over fifteen different words, on how many words she'd said before she finally threw the wrench down on the ground, the item destroyed and beyond useful now.

"Um… Is everything okay?" Guy asked hesitantly.

Valeria rolled her eyes towards the ceiling and took a deep breath before slowly letting it out and looking at him. "The wiring system is fried, as in, a lot of the things I've done to make this stupid piece of—"

"Valeria! That's clearly enough!" Jade ordered.

"—annoyance actually operate better has now become moot…" Valeria finished lamely. She sighed, glaring at the screen in front of her now that she'd turned back around. "Also, it makes our navigation system almost impossible to use and half of the terminals up on the bridge are now going to malfunction."

Jade pinched the bridge of his nose. "Can you fix it?"

"Depends."

"On?"

"How much you want me to fix and how long you want me to take? Cause keep in mind, Guy has to finished the air intake by himself now and we may even have an issue in the secondary engine room, especially since we had to partially shut this one down."

"Plus," Guy added. "Wire work could mean any number of things, and a lot could go wrong while she's doing it."

Valeria pointed at Guy. "He's right, once I start, no one should bother me for fear of making things explode. This is a big ship, one wrong misstep and anything could blow." Turning to look at Guy now, she tossed him her tool belt after grabbing a cluster of smaller tools. "You'll need these more than I do at the moment. You good?"

Guy nodded. "Yeah, I can do this and I'll check the other engine room once I'm done."

"Don't turn anything on in there, or off for that matter, unless you can help it."

"Got it!"

* * *

It was a couple of hours before Valeria chose to speak to either of the two annoyances who'd pretty much stood over her while she worked. Guy had finished with the air intake and gone to the other engine room to fix whatever may be wrong in there. Luckily, as he'd told her when he'd come back minutes earlier, there was only a slight problem that he'd had no trouble fixing, so it was all up to her now.

Carefully extracting herself from the piles of cords she'd undone from the system, Valeria looked from Jade to Guy and back again. "We're going to the nearest port."

Jade raised an eyebrow, likely at the tone she'd used. "Oh? And do you know which port that is?"

"Doesn't matter, the fixes that we've done are temporary, especially this wiring since I don't have anything close to the actual equipment I need to fix it. So either we go to the nearest port, or we're going to sink on our way to Grand Chokmah." Valeria glared at Jade, daring him to argue.

"That's fine; we'll go to the nearest one. Is our navigation system fixed?"

Glowering at the wires on the floor, Valeria nodded. "As long as I'm down here to make sure it's all running correctly? Yes. But some of the terminals aren't fixed yet, couldn't do anything about it so we're definitely running at much lower than we've ran before."

Guy sighed. "Should I get some of the others to pilot as well?"

Valeria thought about it. "Everyone but Ion should probably try and run one of the operational terminals. I'll make sure we have enough to keep going, just make sure we take the shortest route possible so we can get this ship fixed asap."

Jade nodded and turned to head back out, he hesitated though. "Valeria… What if Keterberg is the closest?"

Valeria stiffened, her hand clenching on the pliers in her hand. "I… I'll deal with it if that's the case, just hurry up."

Without another word Jade left, dragging Guy with him as Valeria knelt down to mess with the wires some more.

Keterberg…

* * *

Valeria had honestly lost track of time, so when Jade came to tell her that they were almost to the port, she had to actually concentrate on the words for a couple of seconds before they actually computed in her brain.

"Have you been working on the wiring the entire time?"

By his tone, Valeria had a feeling that if she answered yes, she might actually get one of the elusive Jade Curtiss lectures. However, that also didn't compute in her mind until after she said yes. Jade stared at her a couple of minutes before shaking his head.

"You're obviously out of it, I'll have Nyla bring you your food and hopefully you'll be well enough for when we reach town."

Come to think of it, Valeria hadn't actually seen her furry companion at all since she'd been down here. Maybe Jade had told Nyla not to bother her?

In any case, when the Arka arrived, the blonde was quick to take the proffered food and immediately began shoveling it in her mouth.

Once that was done the two of them made their way towards the exit; stopping only so that Valeria could quickly clean up in one of the bathrooms. They made it there around the same time as the others, and Valeria noticed that Guy had cleaned up as well.

Jade nodded to her then released the door and led the way out. As they made their way down the docks, a soldier ran up to meet them.

"Excuse me. I need to confirm your passports and ship registration."

Valeria almost laughed at that. They were a hodge podge of people from Malkuth, Daath and Kimlascan, in a Malkuth Landship that had been taken and then presumed destroyed in Akzeriuth. What could possibly go wrong?

Jade shot Valeria a look, and she knew he was thinking something similar. "I'm Colonel Jade Curtiss. Third Division, Malkuth Imperial Forces."

The soldier immediately tensed, his hand clutching the papers that Jade had handed over. "M-my apologies, but I heard you were killed at Akzeriuth..."

It appeared that the soldier wasn't sure what exactly to do with this information, since there was actually no precedence when it came to possibly dead Colonels and whether or not this person was telling the truth.

"I can attest to the man before you being Jade," Valeria sighed, reaching her hand into her thigh pouch to pull out the more official passport that she has. "I am Heiress Valeria Felencia of House Frings, I will vouch for the members with us as well."

He jerked upright the moment his gaze fell on her passport. "Of course Heiress, though may I ask what you're doing here when the news we had stated that Colonel Curtiss was in Akzeriuth?"

"That matter is top secret," Jade cut in. "Our ship's engine was damaged during our mission, so we stopped here. I'll explain the situation to the governor, Viscount Osborne. You may inspect the ship as you please."

"Yes sir, shall I show you to the city?"

"That won't be necessary. I was born here. I'm familiar with the area."

"Understood." He turned to Valeria and bowed. "My apologies for the trouble Heiress, if you'll excuse me."

Valeria could feel the gazes of everyone on her then, even Jade, though he was likely curious about how she would spin this. Sighing, Valeria climbed back atop Nyla after putting her passport away. They managed to walk a couple of feet away before one of the others spoke up.

Naturally, it was Anise.

"You're an Heiress!?"

Valeria touched Nyla and the Arka came to a stop, turning around so that they could look at the group. Natalia, Guy and Tear were looking at her in surprise, and Luke was looking at her with his mouth hanging open. Jade just looked amused at the situation.

"It's a bit of a confusion," Valeria muttered, sighing heavily. "The term Heiress, as well as it's counter part Heir, was established a few years ago because of a delicate situation. To appease the situation, the Emperor created the title for those who aren't able to attain their parent's title until it is the right time for them to step down and hand the title down, mostly to indicate that they are next in line for the title. So basically, Heiress is a fancy way of saying I'm a noble of sorts. Plus, I prefer that as I refuse to be called a 'Lady'."

"Huh…" Luke said. "I didn't know that could happen."

"Oh! I vaguely remember this proclamation a couple of years ago, before father had me getting involved more." Natalia commented. "It had never truly made sense until now, although we've had a couple of visiting nobles with that title recently."

"Glad to know it's catching on…" Valeria muttered. "Can we drop this now? We really should go talk to the governor and ask for help…"

"Before that though, is there somewhere we can stop and get coats?" Tear asked suddenly. "I hadn't prepared for this and don't have mine."

The rest of them seemed to agree, Luke especially since he was noticeably shaking. No surprise, since he wasn't wearing as much as the rest of them. Jade didn't appear to be cold but Valeria figured that was due to him living here for so long.

"There's a shop near the exit of the port, it should have what we need." Jade informed them.

"Let's go then."

* * *

By the time they made it to Keterberg, especially given they'd stopped to get everyone but her a coat, Valeria was practically floating on air. She wasn't entirely sure why, but there seemed to be more of an abundance of fourth fonons in the air than in the ocean. Not that she was complaining, it was just surprising to say the least. The only other place she felt this at ease was Grand Chokmah but that was because they used a lot of machinery to make the water flow more extensive in the city.

If only she'd felt it the last time she was here…

Shaking her head from those dark thoughts, Valeria noticed the others looking around in both awe and surprise.

"Huh... for a nobles' resort, there sure aren't many nice buildings." Luke commented, indicating the buildings around them.

"Well, you can hardly compare it to your own place! You're in line for the throne. Any place would look dull to you." Guy pointed out.

"That's not what I meant!" Luke defended.

"Actually," Jade interrupted, "development has been rather limited, due in part to the Emperor's wishes."

"Really?" Natalia asked. "Does he have some sort of special feelings for this town? Perhaps he doesn't want to see his childhood home disturbed."

Valeria nearly doubled over trying to keep from laughing so hard. She knew they didn't know Peony, but it was still hilarious that she'd think it was for that reason. Yulia knows Valeria has had to sit through quite a few stories about this town and she knew exactly why this place hasn't changed.

"...Actually, it's more likely that his first love doesn't want to see the town exploited by nobles." Jade explained, putting his hand against his forehead in annoyance.

The three females of the group seemed to like that notion, since they all made happy noises. Valeria, on the other hand was shaking her head. "You're also forgetting that he was trying to impress her when he decreed that. Not that it helped matters any…"

Jade nodded, and when the others gave the two of them a questioning look he sighed. "Ultimately he was forced to give up on her because she was a commoner, but he's still reluctant to marry anyone else."

"How painful..." Natalia said sadly.

Anise on the other hand was grinning. "Ooh... what a story!"

"...An unrequited love..." Tear whispered.

"So all these recreational facilities were built for his first love?" Guy asked.

"No, the Emperor just likes those." Jade told them.

The look on their faces once again had Valeria chuckling. She honestly couldn't wait until they all met the Emperor, it would definitely be something to see.

Jade continued to lead them through the city and eventually they came to one of the nicer areas where a couple of mansions were located. Valeria noted that Jade kept his gaze studiously away from two of the mansions but said nothing as he finally stopped led them to the mansion where the governor was.

After waiting to be let inside, they left Nyla to curl up by a fire while the maid showed them into a study down the hall.

Inside, the governor sat going over some paperwork with someone looking over her shoulder. The two of them looked up in tandem and Valeria felt the breath leave her body.

_"Hold her down, this process should take me a couple of hours with the amount of detail you want on her. Are you sure you want it on the wrist?"_

_Hands latched onto her shoulders and pushed her down, ignoring her screams to stop and release her. She wasn't sure what exactly was going on, but one of the men who'd found her days ago was behind her._

_He'd said she was safe, so why were these men holding her down?_

_"Yes, clear and visible, do you have a problem with that?"_

_The man chuckled as he went over to a table and picked up a tool. "Of course not, I'll call for you when it's done."_

_With that, he came over to her and with a very precise movement, slid the instrument against her flesh. The pain was immediate and she screamed, begging for it to stop._

_Her screams fell on deaf ears._

"...Jade?! Oh, my brother's alive!"

At any other time, Valeria would've been laughing under her breath at the others' reactions to Nephry but right now Valeria's gaze was locked onto Blaine. The black haired male was looking at her with interest and thinly veiled surprise.

Nephry seemed to remember that he was still there since she turned to him with a small smile. "I'm sorry Doctor Blaine, could we possibly reschedule?"

Without taking his eyes off of Valeria, Blaine nodded. "Of course Governor, it's no problem, this is clearly important. I'm free two nights from now if that's convenient for you."

Nephry nodded. "That should be fine, thank you."

Blaine finally looked back at Nephry with a smile. "As I said, it's not a problem. You have a wonderful day Governor, I'll see myself out."

He strode past the group, pausing only when he got to Valeria. "Hello, pet."

Valeria whirled around to stare at him as he walked out, knowing none of the others could've possibly heard him. A chill ran down her spine at his words, yet she also knew that he couldn't possibly try and pull anything now. Not when her family would make sure nothing would happen to her.

Turning back to the conversation at hand, Valeria helped with telling Nephry what was going on even though her thoughts were at a dozen other places.

Once they got assurances that Nephry would get people to look at the Tartarus, Valeria went ahead and grabbed Nyla, telling Jade that they were going to do some shopping. Mostly because she wanted to get her mind back to happier places.

After wandering for a while, the two of them came upon the weapon shop. Figuring it'd be an interesting place to check out; they walked in and began to look around. Nyla nudged her after awhile and brought her over to an interesting pair of ornate daggers, slightly bigger than most of Valeria's knives.

Smiling at the find, Valeria went to dig for their money pouch when she realized something very important.

The bag was gone.

Cursing, the blonde thought about where they could've possibly left it when she realized she'd had it in the engine from on the Tartarus.

"Hey old man! How late you saying open tonight?"

The old guy in charge of the shop chuckled at her. "For at least three more hours."

Valeria nodded. "Could you maybe hold these blades for me?"

He nodded and took them from her, even passing over a pen and paper when she asked for one. Scrawling a quick note, Valeria thanked him and walked out with Nyla.

"Nyla, find Jade, give him this note, and not anyone else, and then come get me. I figure by the time I get to the port you should be halfway there, okay?"

Nyla didn't look happy about it but she grabbed the note in her mouth and took off towards the hotel that Nephry had gotten them rooms in.

Shaking her head at the Arka, Valeria felt for her thigh pouch to make sure she had a couple of her knives.

Knives she used about halfway back to the port.

Panting, Valeria mentally cursed herself for letting her guard down. The treant had come out of nowhere, blending in with the rest of the trees that she'd walked through. With the abundance of fourth fonons in the air it wasn't the much of a problem for Valeria to take the thing down, but it had managed to get a good hit in before she killed it.

Grumbling under her breathe, Valeria noticed that she hadn't replaced the apple gels in her hip pouch yet so she couldn't very well heal the damage that way.

It dawned on her a moment later that with the amount of fonons in the air, she could actually chance healing the injury with water. Normally, as she'd told the others, it wasn't a good idea to mess around with this form of healing unless she knew she had a back-up. However, even if she screwed up, with the amount of fonons in the air she'd be able to bounce back within minutes.

Grabbing her water pouch, the blonde poured half of the container onto her shoulder, ignoring the slight chill she got. Clearing her mind, and pulling forth the fonons in the air, she brought them to the wound. The fonons fought her slightly before she managed to coax them into doing what she wanted, muttering the incantation she'd seen in the books ages ago.

Minutes passed and soon the wound was nothing but a mere scratch instead of the bleeding mess it had been. Grinning, Valeria stood, only to stumble into a tree in an attempt to keep upright. Taking a moment, she breathed deeply, absorbing the fonons in the air to help steady herself.

The moment she thought she was okay, she nodded and began moving towards the port.

Once she got there, it only took a couple of finagling before she was allowed to go onto the Tartarus. It didn't appear that much work had been done yet, but then again it would probably take them the better part of the night to actually fix things, if not longer depending on how many people they put on this task.

Her bag was right where she thought it would be, thrown against the wall in the engine room. Shaking her head, Valeria grabbed it, tying it to her back and began making her way back out of the landship.

When she got to the main deck she came to a stop.

Standing across from her, a grin on his face, was Blaine.

"Well, well, well pet. It truly has been awhile."

Scowling, Valeria cocked her hip out, hand on her side. "I have a name you know."

Blaine laughed, the sound sending chills down Valeria's spine. "A pet doesn't get a name, you know that."

Valeria grit her teeth. "I am not a pet."

"A pet is always a pet, even should they escape for a period of time."

Period of time? Valeria snorted, there was no way she was going back.

Blaine seemed to know her thoughts on the matter, since he reached around to his back and pulls out a sickle. Valeria blinked, having never actually seen anyone fight with the weapon. It was a curved bladed weapon connected to a chain with a smaller blade at the end of the chain Blaine had in his hand.

So, Blaine had a lot more range that she did.

She knew there was no way he was going to let her get off any of her fonic artes, and the weapon would definitely do some pretty good damage if she let it hit her.

Pulling out some of her knives, Valeria tensed, waiting for Blaine to make the first move.

He moved fast, whirling the blade around in the air with swift precision that had Valeria staggering backwards to dodge. She rolled to the left then as he spun the chain again in her direction. Growling under her breath, Valeria coated her blades in ice before throwing them in his direction, not even bothering to completely aim so she could dodge another strike of his weapon.

Grabbing another two knives, Valeria made a dash for Blaine, coming up to strike him in the side after whirling around to block his sickle. He pulled his weapon back just in time to parry her attack, a sick grin on his face as he attempted to overpower her.

Dodging backward, Valeria whirled a kick to the man's wrist, making him drop his weapon momentarily so she could drive her left blade against his side. Her blade sliced through skin right before Blaine rammed against her, sending her sprawling across the deck and making her lose her grip on the blades. Blaine bent down and grabbed one, the grin now a sneer on his face as he ran at her again holding both his weapon and one of hers.

Flipping back to grab her blade, Valeria stood with a grin. Tapping her thigh pack with her blade, she watched in amusement as the blade in Blaine's hand disappeared from his grip to reappear in her pouch.

Grabbing it once again, as well as the two that had been thrown earlier, Valeria coated all four of them in ice, throwing two and using the last two to parry another strike from Blaine.

What she hadn't counted on was him kicking her in the side, having dropped at the last second so she'd fall forward.

The kick sent her sprawling to the ground once more, not allowing her any time to dodge the strike from his blade as he swung it in her direction. The sickle sliced deeply into her left arm above the elbow before she could move away.

Rolling back, Valeria stood once more before staggering. Eyes wide, her gaze fell to the wound before seeking Blaine as realization dawned on her. Just like Aeron, Blaine was known to use poisons

"Your master is looking forward to your return," Blaine informed her, winding the chain of his weapon in his hand. "He plans to reward whoever brings you back, you know."

Whatever poison he had on his blade was probably paralytic, so he could just take her in and cuff her. Just thinking about the fonon blocking cuffs she always used to wear had Valeria shuddering.

No, she wouldn't go back.

She would rather die.

Gaze flicking around the area, the blonde realized that there weren't very many options left to her. She would probably pass out from the paralytic soon and if she did then Blaine would take her.

Taking a deep breath, she did the only thing she could think of.

Springing forward, Valeria made as if to attack Blaine. The moment he dodged out of the way, she rolled to the left and lunged over the side of the Tartarus.

And into the icy cold water below.

* * *

**Hope you enjoyed that little bit of Valeria's past, we may see a bit more of Blaine, we'll see. Please don't kill me!**


	21. Chapter 21

**A/N:**

**RK: This chapter did not want to come out. Nor did it want to be edited. I think I've been staring at this chapter for a good four days trying to edit it. But it's around the time when I normally post a chapter and I didn't want to put it off for too long or else I wouldn't do it, so it might not be the best edit but it's what I got. **

**So here is the next chapter! **

**A bit of foreshadowing, some odd occurrences and a reappearance of some folks.**

**As always, I hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

The moment he opened his eye, Jade knew something was wrong.

Like any other time they'd gotten rooms at an inn, Valeria had been slotted to share the same room as him. Yet he heard neither the snoring of the Arka nor Valeria muttering in her sleep, like she normally did if she finally managed to get some actual sleep.

Sitting up and looking over, Jade also realized that the other bed in the room hadn't been slept on either.

So where were the girl and her Arka?

Shaking his head, Jade got ready for the day, knowing that he would have to figure out where the two had gone. He sighed, why was it always his responsibility to deal with her?

He already knew the answer, but it was still a question he occasionally had to ask himself.

Once ready, Jade made his way down to the lobby, intent on asking the receptionist if she'd seen either of the two. His steps came to a halt when he saw a golden red bundle curled up by the door of the hotel.

What was Nyla doing outside?

"Is that large dog creature a friend of yours?"

Jade looked over at the receptionist, eyebrow raised.

"Sorry, you're just the first person to notice it and not freak out about a monster being outside the doors. Unless an owner brings the pet in with them, I'm afraid we had to keep the pet outside. I believe it's been out there since last night." She explained.

Jade nodded, understanding that train of thought. However, it meant that Nyla had been either waiting for Valeria, which was unlikely since the blonde wouldn't leave her best friend out in the cold like that, or the Arka was waiting for him.

"Jade?"

Looking behind him, Jade nodded to Tear, not surprised that the Oracle Soldier was up as early as he was. "Good morning Tear."

"Is that Nyla out there?"

"I was just about to go and find out why she was out there; would you like to accompany me?"

Tear nodded slowly as Jade led the way out to the Arka.

The moment he opened the door, Nyla shook off the pile of snow that had been slowly growing on her and growled at Jade under her breath. He instantly noticed the note in the Arka's mouth, and accepted it a moment later when she offered it.

Grabbing onto Nyla's mane so she wouldn't run the moment the letter was out of her mouth, Jade passed the letter to Tear. She opened it and then passed it back to him so he could see it.

'Jade,

Left my bag with my money on the Tartarus, went to get it.

Figured you should know.

Don't worry, I plan to be back before the weapon shop closes so I can get the knives the old man is holding for me. Nyla is supposed to come get me once she gives you this note.

-Valeria'

Nyla was growling at him again, trying to get him to let go so she could run off. However Jade was beginning to understand just how bad the situation now was. He hadn't expected the blonde to run off on her own while in this town, so he hadn't kept as close an eye on her as he should have.

And if she hadn't come back by now…

"Tear, would you help Nyla and I look for Valeria?"

Tear frowned. "Is something wrong?"

"I'm not sure… But she was supposed to be back long before now." Jade admitted, finally letting Nyla go, the Arka realizing that he would be coming with her. "Nyla, if you would track her please?"

Tear agreed to go with him and the two of them quickly set off with Nyla in the lead. It was clear to Jade that the Arka wanted to dash off and find her owner, but Nyla was smart. She probably knew that if Valeria had been gone this long then she might need help.

Jade also had to wonder just how far Nyla would go when following orders. He's seen her do some stupid moves while following Valeria's requests. He even had a feeling Valeria didn't know how far the Arka would go otherwise if she knew about it then the blonde would have Nyla dial it back a couple notches.

They reached a section in the path that had Nyla pausing to sniff for a couple of minutes before the Arka went completely off road and in the opposite direction of the port town, leaving the two of them to follow behind.

A blast of cold hit them and Jade watched as Tear clutched the coat she had purchased while in the port the other day. The cold didn't really bother him anymore, having grown up in this weather during his childhood years, but this blast of cold was odd for this time of the year. Normally around this time, the weather was a bit warmer and the air currents in this area were easier on the skin.

So what could've made this cold blast of air?

The two of them continued to follow Nyla further and further from the road, walking across the snow filled land until they reached the ocean and continued along the shore. Finally, after what seemed like at least half an hour from when they'd left the main path, they sighted something in the distance.

Was that… Ice?

Before them lay heaps of sharp icy fixtures, spiraling out in large patterns. Within the epicenter lay the largest spire of ice , upon which two artic wolves were pierced through. Jade counted at least a dozen different smaller pillars of ice between them and the center.

Nyla whined, pawing at the nearest pillar before going off in a direction to circle the formation. From the Arka's concern, it was easy to guess that Valeria was with the structure, but it was still hard to believe.

Jade actually hoped she wasn't, for he wasn't sure what exactly had done the damage to the wolves pierced by the ice. Plus there might actually be more wolves in the center.

Nyla growled loudly, alerting them that she found a way inside. Following the Arka, the two humans carefully made their way through all the ice towards the center. Once there, Jade heard Tear gasp softly.

Even more ice spread out through the bodies of four more wolves, their bodies circling a figure lying on the ground that Nyla was currently nudging. Tear dropped down next to the figure and carefully rolled it over. Neither one of them were surprised when it was revealed to be Valeria.

Tear then wasted no time running a scan arte over the girl while Jade continued to survey the damage to the area. Now that he was looking closely, the ice pillars seemed to be forming a sort of barrier that was to keep any other wild life out and protect what was inside. The pillars that had pieced all the wolves were the only ones that seemed dangerous.

"Jade… There are remnants of a poison in her…"

"What do you mean by remnants?"

Tear shook her head, confusion plain on her face. "It's as if she was already healed by something, she also had a relatively deep cut on one of her arms and a gash on her leg from something as well. But all of it has been healed recently, and I don't think it was by normal methods."

Jade looked at where she was pointing at the blonde's leg and noticed, once he actually made an attempt to look, an abundance of fourth fonons brushing against the healed injury.

"That's not normal, Jade." Tear informed him. "I'm not sure what might've done that."

Jade frowned, looking around. "We probably should leave and get back to Keterberg, you can be more thorough there and we won't have to worry about attacks."

Tear nodded and began helping Valeria onto Nyla's back.

Once ready, they picked their way across the odd ice formations and began heading back to Keterberg.

* * *

"Jade!"

They had just walked into the hotel when Jade saw Nephry and Natalia making their way over to him.

"We had tried knocking on your door but you weren't there," Natalia informed him.

"Oh? What is the matter?"

"Last night the men who went to inspect the Tartarus caught someone on the main deck. They haven't told me who it was yet but they detained him because they encountered him trying to leave after something fell into the ocean," Nephry explained, arms crossed over her chest. "I told them I'd let you know and see if you wanted to do something about it."

Jade immediately looked at Valeria, who was still unconscious across Nyla's back. The blonde's letter had said she needed to go back aboard the Tartarus to get a bag of hers, and she definitely had clearance to get back on board. And instead of being found on the Tartarus, she was found near an ocean bank miles away from the port.

"Where is the man detained?"

"They brought him here to the city; he's detained at the military outpost."

"I'll see to it after we check on Valeria."

Natalia had apparently noticed that the blonde was unconscious and had moved to talk with Tear. The two of them shot Jade a look then moved towards one of the elevators with Nyla in tow. Jade nodded to Nephry and informed her that he would call for her when he went to go deal with the issue then followed the others.

Once they made it back to Jade's room, the two healers began checking Valeria over, with Natalia using an energy replenishing arte towards the end.

"Like Tear said, the wounds were healed differently, using fourth fonons," Natalia explained to Jade. "I've never seen anything like that."

Jade understood that well enough, he'd seen many occasions where dealing with the blonde made him question whether some things were possible.

Natalia opened her mouth to say something when Valeria groaned from her spot on the bed. Everyone looked over to see her sitting up and clutching her arm. She was looking around in confusion then looked down at her arm.

"Who healed me?"

Natalia hesitated. "We were kind of hoping you would be able to answer that for us…"

Valeria shook her head. "The last thing I remember is…"

Jade narrowed his eyes when Valeria trailed off, the blonde suddenly wincing at the memory. "Something tells me I'm not going to like what you're going to say next."

Silver eyes looked at him. "I jumped into the ocean."

"Wait, what?!" Natalia demanded. "What could possibly make you want to do something like that!? It's freezing out there, let alone in the water!"

Valeria turned her gaze to the princess. "And yet out of all of us, I'm the only one not wearing any article of clothing to protect from the cold other than my normal shirt. The cold is an extension of fourth fonons vibrating together and releasing themselves into the air at faster rates. Therefore, the cold isn't a problem for me since I'm a fourth fonist."

Jade sighed. "That still didn't answer the question as to why you jumped into the ocean. Nice try diverting the question though."

"Damn it," Valeria muttered under her breath. "Fine! I was attacked, okay? And I refuse to just bow down to being attacked. If I'm going to go down, it'll be on my own terms!"

Jade's first thought was that someone from Valeria's old life tried to get her, and from the look she gave him, he had a feeling his thoughts were right. "Valeria. The men who went to check the Tartarus called the guards to apprehend someone who wasn't supposed to be there."

Valeria's eyes narrowed. "You talk to them yet?"

"No, I wanted to get your account of the situation first."

"I went back to the Tartarus to get my bag since I needed the money from it. I got the bag and made my way to the port hatch when I ran into Blaine, the doctor from Nephry's place. We talked, he drew a weapon and I retaliated to make sure I wouldn't get taken. However his weapon had a paralytic on it and he managed to nick me. Instead of allowing myself to pass out, I took matters into my own hand and dove into the ocean. The next thing I know I'm waking up with you guys over me, that's all I know."

Jade knew there was a bit more than that, but he also knew that Valeria wouldn't speak too freely with Natalia and Tear in the room. Besides, he'd already gotten everything he needed from her.

"Stay here and rest, I need to go speak with the soldiers."

Before Valeria could retort, he left the room and began heading towards the outpost.

He was allowed in without any hassle and sure enough, sitting in the cell looking annoyed was Blaine. Jade knew little about this man, since he hadn't thought to check up on him yesterday after the conversation with Nephry. So the only two things he knew was that the man was a doctor, and he'd tried to kidnap Valeria.

"Well, well, well. Colonel Jade Curtiss, your sister occasionally mentioned you when we've had our meetings— "

"What were you doing on the Tartarus?" Jade cut in.

"I was asked to go and check out the medical bay, that's all." Blaine told him.

"Oh really? I'm afraid I received different information. Not only did the soldiers at the port tell me that they hadn't allowed you on board, but I was informed by someone else that you instigated an attack while on board."

Blaine snorted. "I didn't attack anyone, that soldier is sorely mistaken."

"I never said it was a soldier who gave me the information." Jade told him, a smile threatening to form as he caught the doctor in the lie.

Blaine seemed to realize his mistake since he became quiet, eyes narrowing at Jade.

"You attacked and attempted to kidnap a member of a noble family of Malkuth. That is a serious problem as it is a crime to do such an act."

Blaine laughed outright. "A member of a noble family?! You've got to be kidding me, I attacked no one like that."

"Are you certain? I just finished talking with her before I came down here to see who might've possibly broken onto the Tartarus."

Now Blaine's eyes widened as he took in Jade's words. The black haired male narrowed his eyes moments later as he let out a soft curse under his breath. "Alright fine, you got me. But how did she survive going into the ocean? There's no way she should've been able to make it to shore."

"That is of no concern for you. As I said, you attacked a noble of Malkuth, and for that you're going to be punished."

Jade turned around and began walking out, however Blaine called out to him. "If you know her past, you should know that she's not safe anymore! He wants her back, now that he knows where to find her!"

Jade paused to look back at Blaine. "Aeron won't get to her again, not with her family supporting her."

"I'm not talking about Aeron!" Blaine laughed.

Was there someone else, Jade wondered, or was Blaine just trying to get a rise out of him. In any case, he continued on his way out, ordering the soldiers there to keep him locked up until word from the Governor came to them.

He'd just made it back to the hotel when Nephry arrived as well.

"Good, this saves me from having to find you at your home."

"I was just coming to let you all know that the repairs on the Tartarus have been completed. Did you got and speak with the soldiers? Who was it they took into custody?"

Jade explained what he found out, even telling where they'd found Valeria and what the blonde had said. When he was done, Nephry looked bothered.

"I've been dealing with Doctor Blaine for years and have never had any issues with him…"

"That's cause he hides everything he does."

The two of them looked over at Valeria, who'd just stepped out of the elevator with Nyla on her heels not looking happy. Jade suspected that the blonde had waited until the two healers had finally left before walking out. He wouldn't really put it past her, to be honest.

"How so?" Nephry asked hesitantly.

"First question, what do you know of my past?" Valeria countered.

"I... know..." Nephry told her slowly.

"That's fine, it actually makes it easier. Blaine is the Carver for the Slavers who kept me. He's the one who inscribes the brands on all of the slaves once they've been purchased or inducted."

It dawned on Jade the moment she said it. "He's the one who carved your arm as well..."

Nephry looked between the two in confusion until, with a sigh, Valeria slowly removed the glove covering her scars. The moment Nephry got her fill, the blonde wrapped it back up, not wanting it out a moment longer.

Nephry looked pained but she nodded. "Thank you for this information, I won't let it go to waste." She turned to look at Jade. "Please give your regards to His Majesty when you go to Grand Chokmah."

"I will, thank you Nephry."

The heat from the fire actually felt good for once.

Which made absolutely no sense to Valeria, since she hadn't been cold in Keterberg, so why was she cold in a forest on the way to Grand Chokmah?

Their group had quickly made their way to Rotelro bridge and was now halfway to Theor Forest, where they would either be allowed through, or they'd have some troubles.

It was night time and they'd made a decision to stop, since Ion was getting tired and the others also seemed a little worse for wear. Guy and Luke had gone out to hunt for food, Nyla had as well but she was probably hunting for herself and not the group. The two swordsmen had made it back right as Jade had gotten the fire started, which was where the blonde was sitting, warming her hands.

Now, the smell of the meat cooking was starting to make her feel a bit ill, but she was cold and wanted to sit by the fire. Nyla still hadn't returned, so Valeria wasn't able to pass out but after all the water fonons she'd felt both in Keterberg and on the ocean on their way here, she was actually a bit wired, so sleep might not even be an option for some time.

"Valeria, move away from the fire before you vomit…" Jade calmly ordered her, his tone telling her not to order. How he knew without looking up, she'll never know.

Sighing, Valeria stood and moved back to sit next to Jade when they heard footsteps coming towards them.

Almost instantly, Jade and Guy were standing near the edge of their campsite. Valeria poked her head to the side and watched with bored interest as Nyla padded over to them next to a silver haired male.

"Who are you?" Guy asked, hand still on his weapon.

Jade looked from Nyla, to Drayden and then his gaze fell on Valeria. "The two of you know him."

It wasn't a question, since Nyla had escorted him to them, but Valeria took it like one. "Yeah, he's a contact of mine. Drayden, what are you doing here?"

Walking past the two men, he sat next to Valeria with a groan. "I've been walking all day looking for you. Luckily your pooch found me while she was hunting or I might've missed you."

Nyla snorted at the silver haired man before turning around and stalking back out into the dark to hunt more.

Drayden pulled out some money and held it up. "I haven't eaten all day, would you spare some meat for me?"

Jade eyed the man for a moment before looking at Tear, who was in charge of cooking. The melodist looked at the meat they had and nodded.

"Keep the money, so long as you answer Valeria's question."

Drayden shrugged and pocketed his gald. "I was given a task for her from a mutual contact. It'd be easier for us to accomplish before all of you got to Grand Chokmah, so I came looking. Although… if two of you wouldn't mind helping us fight, it'd be appreciated."

Valeria frowned at him, the two of them only had a select few people who could be mutual contacts, and of those few, only one would have a task for her.

Drayden accepted a plate from Tear once she was done cooking and then turned to look at Valeria. "By the way, the disc was accepted and full payment will be given to you when you get to Grand Chokmah."

Valeria noticed Jade's eyes narrowing at Drayden's words. She wasn't worried about the silver haired male talking about the disk, Jade had known that the information had been for someone else, something Drayden must've picked up on.

"I'm afraid we won't be able to have Valeria or anyone else help you, we're in a hurry to get to the capitol." Jade told Drayden.

Drayden shook his head. "Yeah, no. They'll have enough time, I can promise you that. Lock-down protocols have been activated surrounding the city and they won't let anyone they don't know through Theor Forest," he paused, thinking, "although, you could probably make it through, but I highly doubt they'll let anyone else in this group go with you."

Jade looked annoyed, though only Valeria could tell. He'd probably already known that was going to happen, and now he had no real way of keeping Valeria with them. Because of this, the blonde was already considering what Drayden was asking.

"I can see the wheels turning in your head, and let me add, she's going to pay for this one as well. It needs to get done asap." Drayden murmured softly to her, talking around his food so the others wouldn't hear.

Sighing, Valeria looked at Luke then at Guy. "Would you guys like to help out? Since, after all, we're probably just going to be sitting and waiting for Jade to return."

The two swordsmen looked at each other and shared a look before Luke turned to nod his agreement.

Taking that as both of them agreeing, Drayden clapped his hands. "Great! We'll leave in the morning, I'm gonna pass out now, night!"

Valeria watched as he flopped over and rolled onto his side to fall asleep. She still wasn't sure what to think about Drayden, but he just got crazier in her book.

"That was interesting."

"Shut up, Luke." Valeria muttered.

* * *

Their group of five, seeing as Nyla wouldn't leave Valeria, made their way away from the others. A couple of hours after they'd left, monsters began appearing around them, getting stronger and stronger.

By the time Drayden called for them to stop, Valeria was wondering what exactly they were supposed to be doing. "It should be around here…"

"What?"

Drayden tilted his head to look at the red head. "The barrier that she placed around here to dissipate the aura around the thing."

Wait a sec…

Strong monsters. Out in a place where monsters can congregate. A strong aura.

"Are you kidding me!? You should have mentioned this sooner! We are in no way prepared to fight this thing!" Valeria hissed at Drayden, hitting the silver haired man in the side.

Drayden hissed out a breath at her. "What was that for!?"

"Why didn't you say that we have to fight the Sword Dancer?! We need a healer for that!"

Drayden reached behind his back and pulled out three small bags and tossed them out to each of them. "Chill, I was given a bag for each fighter filled with gels."

"Gels can't do everything!"

Valeria looked at the two swordsmen, Guy looked uneasy to fight the thing again while Luke, who hadn't fought the creature before, wasn't sure what to think. She couldn't just ask them to help her with this when they had no healer.

"Valeria, if we leave this thing any more the barrier will break and monsters will congregate and go towards a village." Drayden said calmly, as if talking to a child. "At least, what's what I was told."

Valeria cursed and looked at the others. They seemed to share her sentiments since they just continued to move onward. They hadn't even taken a few more steps before they walked across a fonic barrier, the strong presence of the sixth fonons almost making Valeria vomit as she fell to the ground.

They all looked around, not spotting a sword sticking out of the ground. Frowning, Valeria stood up shakily. "How big is the barrier created?"

"Honestly? I don't know, she just said that she had to create a powerful one so that this thing wouldn't attract too many monsters."

"On the plus side, at least since the barrier's larger, the chance of anything attacking us while we're fighting it is slim to none." Valeria reasoned.

The others nodded slowly before they began moving once more.

Within the next twenty minutes, Valeria had begun cursing under her breath about how annoying it was to look for a stupid sword in the middle of the bloody forest.

She was muttering so much that she wasn't paying attention, so she tripped over a loose rock and stumbled through yet another sixth fonon barrier, this time the amount of fonons making her heave up the remainder of her breakfast. Drayden patted her on the back once he came through the barrier and they waited for the two swordsmen to realize they'd literally stumbled upon the sword in the ground.

Standing, Valeria walked to the sword and placed her hand on it, shuddering as a cold chill ran down her spine.

_"I see… You have returned… Show me your strength!"_

* * *

**A/N: Not gonna lie, getting into and staying in Jade's head is hard... But hey, we get to look forward to Sword Dancer next chapter! That's a plus, right?**


	22. Chapter 22

**A/N:**

**RK: Okay, so I know this is late, like by a month. And I'm sorry about that! Sadly things got in the way and I got swamped with life and lost track of time. However, if this happens and you're looking forward to another chapter and it's past the 14th of the month, feel free to PM me and I'll see if I have enough of a chapter ready to post it for you.**

**Anyway, this chapter is going to be considered last month's chapter since I'm that much of a dork.**

**That being said, guess what today is! The SECOND anniversary! Which means I've spent a lot of my life lost in Abyss land, lol! So just like last year, because today is the anniversary, there will be two posts to celebrate it. So guess what? You're getting THREE chapters today instead of just one!**

**Are you excited yet?**

**AND, we get to see the Sword Dancer!**

**So as always, enjoy!**

* * *

_"I see… You have returned… Show me your strength!"_

Skeletal arms rose up, pushing against the earth to rise as cracks formed on the surface of the ground. Darker shapes pulled themselves completely from the earth, three arms reaching behind the creature's back to pull swords from within itself, a fourth hand reaching down to collect the sword that was stuck in the ground.

Valeria moved back as the Sword Dancer finished appearing, moving to stand alongside Drayden as the swordsmen dashed forward to occupy the creature's attention. The blonde also noted that Nyla remained by her side for the moment but pushed that thought aside and began casting.

As her arte continued to form, Valeria reached into her weapon pouch to pull out the enchanted weapons she'd gotten from their previous battle with the creature, thinking that poisoned blades could probably help them, and realized that the weapons were no longer in her possession.

When she'd used them not even an hour ago against other monsters…

And since they had been etched with the symbol to automatically appear back in her bag she obviously hadn't lost them which meant…

Weapons gained from the creature can't be used against it.

How annoying…

Pulling out a different pair of blades, Valeria unleashed a Blessed Drop on the creature the moment the two sword users were out of the way. Her arte was directly followed by an arte from Drayden, the silver haired male having finished casting moments after she finished.

Valeria watched with her mouth open as the Flame Burst Drayden used swept through the Sword Dancer, knocking the creature over from the heat once her arte had made it unstable.

She then turned on the smuggler, looking over the man's fonic seal with wide eyes. "You're a fonist?!"

Drayden chuckled, sweeping his hands around his back to draw out two guns. He cocked the weapons, changing the bullet type and shot off a couple of rounds before he answered. "In a manner of speaking, I only know a select amount of artes but they'll do."

The two of them dodged out of the way, moving to different parts of the field, as two of the creature's arms swept towards them, Nyla remaining where she was until the last moment. Right before it hit the Arka she circled around the strike and bit into one of the thing's arms.

Valeria had to keep from laughing as the Sword Dancer pulled its arm back, Arka still attached, and attempted to shake the canine off.

As the Sword Dancer attempted that, the blonde slipped into another casting stance, knowing that with three close range fighters she can focus mainly on her fonic artes, and let off a Splash right as Drayden used Explosion.

The moment both artes finished their assault on the Sword Dancer, the swordsmen once again took the creatures attention. It didn't matter to Valeria at the moment, she suddenly felt giddy. She hadn't known any of Drayden's fighting abilities before now, and now that she knew he could use that particular fifth fonic arte her respect of him had grown.

Now she just needed to get closer to him to explain what she wanted.

The two swordsmen attacked in sync with one another, leaping over flailing arms and swords as the Sword Dancer grew angrier and angrier. It seemed to reach its peak when it suddenly released a powerful burst of fonons, knocking every single one of them to the ground. Nyla was the first to recover, sprinting head first into the being's chest, knocking it to the side where Guy was waiting to deal out a powerful arte Valeria hadn't seen him use before.

The Severing Wind hit the Sword Dancer with a powerful gust of harmful wind that had Valeria noticing how the fonons swirled around one another. Even though she wasn't able to use the fonons, it definitely came in handy to be able to see them if she really tried too, since she noticed the third fonons were trying to play with some of her fourth fonons.

Valeria quickly began mentally going through the list of artes she knew, and the changes that she'd made to them whether it was instinctual or purposefully, and began to wonder what might work with the arte Guy just used.

It hit her suddenly and she smirked, circling around the outside of the fight, heading towards Guy. He saw her coming as he dodged another strike from the Sword Dancer, moving her way instead of away. The blonde fonist took a quick glance and saw Luke had dropped back to quickly eat a gel, though which she wasn't sure, and was happy with the timing.

"Hey Guy! Use Severing Wind again and let it happen!"

"Wait, what?!"

"Just do it! Luke, Nyla, stay back!"

Luke had already been back so he stayed where he was while Nyla rolled out of the way of a strike from the Sword Dancer, letting the creature's focus fall on Guy. The blond swordsman gripped his weapon tightly and moved to quickly circle around the Sword Dancer till he was at the creature's back. Being the quickest of them, he managed to do this before the creature had a chance to follow him and the moment it turned towards Guy, he lunged forward.

Twisting his blade around, he spun and lept into the air, a burst of wind trailing in his wake. Valeria timed it well, rushing beneath him with her fonons gathered and allowed them to combine with the remaining third fonons on the ground.

Guy gasped in surprise, obviously feeling his arte change while he was still in the air. The fonons around him, instead of dissipating like before, attached themselves to his sword and allowed him another strike.

"Rise above!"

The Sword Dancer had followed him into the air due to the original arte, but once Guy thrust his blade upward it rose even more. Guy dropped down as Valeria, who'd gotten Nyla to toss her into the air, took his place, her knives clutched tightly in her hands. Twirling around, she swept her blades, coated in ice, at the Sword Dancer twice before kicking it back towards the ground.

"Burst of Ice!"

From the ground, Guy thrust his blade up, once more coated in third fonons as Valeria allowed herself to fall towards the creature, throwing her ice coated blades down to meet the strike of Guy's sword.

"Sky's Frost!" The two of them called out, their blade connecting at the same time to deal the final damage from their combined artes.

While the Sword Dancer roared in fury from where it lay on the ground, Valeria landed a few feet away. As she moved to collect her knives, thinking it was downed for the moment, it released another pulse of dark energy at them, hitting the blonde straight in the chest while Guy managed to roll out of the way. Valeria flew through the air and landed in a heap far from the fight, not having expected that reaction from the creature.

"Valeria! You good?"

The blonde flinched as she stood up, chest pounding and a roaring noise in her ears. Wetness trickled from her nose and forehead, a groan escaping her lips when the pain of the injuries let her know how badly she'd taken damage.

"Nope!"

Her head swam as she tried to focus on what was going on. Luke, Nyla and Guy were all attacking the creature, keeping it occupied as Drayden made his way over to her, shooting a couple of rounds as he walked back.

In his hands was the bag he'd given her earlier.

Upon realizing that, Valeria clutched her side where it was supposed to be and breathed a sigh of relief upon noticing her normal bag was still there. The next question was when she'd actually lost the bag she'd temporarily tied to her side, had it been lost when she'd been flung? She honestly didn't know.

Taking it from the gunner, she dug out a lemon gel and an orange gel, eating them both quickly.

Thankfully the lemon gel helped some, though not nearly enough, her head was still hurting immensely. "Hey Drayden?"

"Yeah?"

"You know how Guy and I did a combo arte?"

"Yeah…"

"Want to do one too?"

The gunner raised his eyebrows, taking a moment to let off another Flame Burst at the creature once the others were out of the way. "Anything I need to know?"

"The fonons will try and pull away, let them and the right term will come to you, I don't know how, it's almost as if the fonons supply them or something."

"I've had that happen, when I figured out my Mystic Arte."

"Could you use that now?" She questioned him, eyes wide.

"Yeah… no, sadly I've got the wrong weapons," he admitted, then seemed to think about it. "Well, that and I've not attempted to cast it yet, I've only just gotten the theory down. It's a bit too dangerous to try such an arte for the first time during a critical fight."

Valeria cursed under her breath, her hope dying with that. Well, mostly. At least he was still willing to try the combo arte.

"Use Explosion, I'll indicate when," she ordered, standing and turning her full attention back to the fight. Her eyes flicked from place to place, attempting to see where exactly the sword wielders would direct the creature to next. "Guy, Luke, be ready to get out of the way again!"

They called their agreement, though in that moment the Sword Dancer lose interest in them, deciding to come towards the two fonists. Valeria smirked, happy it had decided to make her life easier. By the time it reached them, they definitely could finish casting.

Settling into a casting stance, Valeria nodded for Drayden to do the same.

"Blades of Ice, arise—"

"Bring all to ash and ruin—"

Their artes changed just then, as the two had done before when Valeria had done the arte with Asch. Instead of the fourth fonons combining to freeze, they bundled up with the fifth fonons and began melding to for the newer arte.

For some inexplicable reason, it made Valeria giddy, just watching as the fonons mutated together in a way she could actually control, even if it was only for a few moments and with the help of someone else.

The two fonon groups pulsed around the Sword Dancer, ready to answer their call. Nodding to Drayden, Valeria flicked her hand out.

"Freeze the Earth!"

Drayden snapped his fingers. "Burn the Skies!"

The flames that formed in the sky above the Sword Dancer blazed brightly, brighter than Valeria had ever seen a fifth fonic arte blaze. They crashed down from the sky as the ice that she summoned formed below the creature. More ice than usual rose to strike at the Sword Dancer's sides, piecing it on all sides as the two elements met together in the middle.

"Ragnarok!"

A strong burst of fiery cold energy exploded visibly from the center of the attack, pushing out through the air before turning right back and hit its target again, leaving both heat and cold in its wake.

The attack was enough to once again for the Sword Dancer to the ground in a flail of limbs, the creature roaring in pain.

Guy and Drayden were looking at the damage that had been done in shock, while Luke only seemed a tad surprised. It took a moment for Valeria to remember why he wouldn't be as surprised as the other two, he had been connected to Asch during the first use of this arte.

But while he wasn't as surprised, Valeria was. The amount of fonons that had been pulled into the attack, both her own as well as the fifth fonons, were much more than before. And she had only pulled that many to balance out what Drayden had pulled…

She whirled to face him. "You're a pure fonist!?"

Drayden shot her a shocked look before his eyes widened for a different reason, making him call out to her. The blonde turned to the side, eyes widening as she lunged to escape the sword heading her way. The dark creature shrieked as the sword missed her by inches as it struggled to rise.

"What is it going to take to get rid of this thing?!" Luke called out.

"Didn't you fight this before? How'd it die then?" Drayden asked, shooting off more rounds from his gun.

Valeria scowled, moving to duck around another flailing limb as she attempted to remember what exactly happened the last time to stop the creature.

But all she came up with was a big blur…

What _had_ they done to finish off this dark creature before?

Rolling around another strike, Valeria stumbled back as Nyla rammed straight into the Sword Dancer again. This time instead of just knocking the Sword Dancer off course, a weird aura that had surrounded the Arka sparked upon impact, jolting the creature.

Valeria blinked in surprise as she took in the sparks in the air, shocked at the sudden move the Arka pulled. It brought to mind a conversation she'd had with Natalia in the past, where the princess has asked if Nyla knew any other skills. Valeria honestly hadn't known at the time if the pet knew anything other than her scenting skill.

So either Nyla had never seen the need to do this before it or was something new.

Valeria was betting it was the latter and not the former, her best friend wouldn't keep something cool like this away from her.

Looking harder, Valeria was able to how many of what types of fonons reacted when the Arka used her attack. It looked like she was able to pull third and fourth fonons around her as a battering ram of sorts, which then sparked to strike the opponent upon impact.

In all honesty, Valeria was impressed; if also a tad concerned. Since Nyla was literally running into the creature, she wondered if the attack could cause side effects to her friend as well.

"Valeria!"

"Yeah?!"

"Can we try that arte again?"

Valeria cast a quick glance over at Drayden, the gunner having moved to the other side of the field. Apparently the Sword Dancer had realized the two of them were behind the most recent batch of pain so they'd had to remain on the move.

Tightening her hands on her knives, Valeria ran towards the Sword Dancer. Nyla intercepted her, as if she knew that Valeria wanted to be on the other side of the creature. Like they'd done dozens of times in the past, Valeria placed her foot on Nyla's paw, and the moment contact was made, Nyla bucked up, tossing Valeria into the air above the Sword Dancer.

Flipping over and dodging a strike from the creature, the girl landed in a crouch and moved to stand next to Drayden.

The gunner whistled. "That was impressive, how long did that take to prefect?"

"I thought you wanted to try using Ragnarok again?"

He snorted under his breath and gained a casting stance.

Truthfully, the two of them could've attempted the arte even on opposite sides of the field, but with these types of artes timing was critical and if she finished too quickly or slowly for Drayden then their control would vanish and either the artes would be separated like normal or…

Well, she'd never had a different situation before, so she wasn't sure.

Falling into a casting stance once more, Valeria left it to the swordsmen and Nyla to distract the creature so she could cast her arte.

As before, the arte began to take shape even as they were casting their own artes. However, right as they began to seem them together the Sword Dancer seemed to realize what was happening, choosing to then fling one of its swords towards them.

Unable to move fully out of the way in time, the sword hit Drayden on the shoulder. The blade sailed by him, slicing the flesh apart and sending him sprawling to the ground with a cry of pain.

Gritting her teeth, Valeria tried to get the arte under control, but since it had begun to change to the melded arte she wasn't able to reign it in, and without Drayden's guidance the arte began to mutate even further.

Energy began flowing from the blonde, Valeria pushing her energy against the arte in the hopes that it would help. To no avail as the arte tried once more to correct itself before exploding in an uncontrolled blast of fire and ice, striking all those in the immediate area of the creature.

Luke lunged out of the way in time, making Valeria think he had subconsciously felt the building fonons, but Nyla and Guy weren't as lucky. The two of them for hit with the flames, though luckily the Sword Dancer still managed to take the brunt of the damage, more ice than normal coating the ground under the creature.

Eyes narrowing and vision growing dark, Valeria set her gaze on the Sword Dancer as it began to make its way towards where Guy was face down on the ground, unable to move from the burn he'd sustained.

Right as it raised its blade to strike, Valeria flung one of her blades into the creature's back, watching with a blank expression as the blade sank into the hilt.

_"As I command! Purify!"_

From where the knife was embedded into the Sword Dancer's back slivers of ice began to form. The ice continued to pour from the wound, some even getting pulled from the fonons within the ground, until the ice encased the creature in a thin layer of clear crystal, the dark being visible from within the structure.

An aura pulsed from within the ice, shattering it completely. The creature slowly began to shimmer, its form fading until only a single sword remained in the ground.

_"Yes… You are indeed powerful... We shall meet again..."_

The sword then shimmered, just as the creature had, and the dark aura enveloped it before the sword disappeared, taking the strong presence with it.

The moment the thing was gone, Valeria swiftly turned to Drayden and dropped down to see the damage done.

There was blood everywhere, though she honestly couldn't tell how bad the wound was because of it all. All she could really tell was that his shoulder was still bleeding and his face was pale as he clutched his good hand to where his injury was, attempting to keep from bleeding out.

Nyla padded over just then, growling under her breath and Valeria immediately felt an odd soothing sensation coming from the Arka's direction.

Nodding her thanks, Valeria dug into the bag containing the lemon gels and placed one on the wound and another against Drayden's mouth. He struggled, but in the end managed to eat the gel though his wound refused to absorb the gel against his skin.

Muttering curses under her breath, Valeria dug into one of Nyla's bags for the herbs she'd used in the past to help with wounds when gels weren't enough. But in her search her hand brushed one of her extra bottles of water, making her pause.

A mental debate began in her head before she just decided to throw caution to the side and go with her instincts. Grabbing the bottle, she took three long pulls of the liquid before dumping the rest of the contents on Drayden's wounds, ignoring his protesting words by telling him to shut up.

After all the water had been emptied and was now dripping down his arm, Valeria placed her hands lightly on the edges of the wound and breathed out. The fonons in the air, along with those in the actual water, responded to her readily, rapidly beginning to build up along the sides of the wound as she muttered two different incantations under her breath.

Slowly, ever so slowly, the wound began to close up but as it did she felt a massive wave of exhaustion hit her. Her vision, which really hadn't cleared up since the Ragnarok arte had gone out of control, grew even darker and she began to sweat. Right as she seemed like she was about to tumble forward, Valeria felt more water splash on her head, helping to jolt her away enough to finish the healing artes.

When the wound was fully closed and the blood had seemed to seep back into Drayden's skin, Valeria slumped back, nodding her thanks to Luke for the sudden bath he'd given her. She was a bit surprised he'd thought to do that, but no less grateful, since it allowed her to finish with Drayden.

When Drayden sat up straight and the two of them got a good look at his shoulder, all that remained of the wound was a red irritated line and a small bit of bruises.

A groan had Valeria looking over to see Guy had regained consciousness and was looking around in confusion. His face had a nasty burn on it that made Valeria wince in sympathy as he staggered over to the rest of them.

When he was within reach, Valeria reached a trembling hand to snag his water pouch and, before the blond could stop her, poured the entire thing on his head, letting it drench his face. Without a word Luke passed her another water container, which Valeria wasn't sure where it had come from, and she downed the rest of what was in there.

But when she tried to put her hand on Guy's wound he began to freak out, making things difficult until Luke finally just sat on Guy to keep him from running.

Normally this would've amused Valeria to no end, but she was beyond tired and just wanted to see if she could finish healing Guy's wound, if at all possible, and pass out on Nyla for a bit.

Afraid of making Guy freak out too much, she kept her contact with his skin to a minimum and did her best to heal the wound.

By the time she was done, her vision had darkened to near black and her energy levels were close to being empty, which was never a good sign. But the burn was healed and every other injury left of the rest of them could be healed by gels or could wait until they reached one of the seventh fonists.

Drayden, during the time she'd been trying to heal Guy, had looked around and as he was coming back Valeria noticed he hand something in his hands. No… two things in his hands?

He sat down next to where Valeria was now leaning against Nyla and lifted the item in his left hand so she could see it. It was a spear, and looked to have the same dark coloring as the knives Valeria had received from the creature.

He passed it to Valeria who made sure she didn't actually touch the blade but looked it over. The weapon was enchanted, just like her knives, and she had a feeling they might have some other hidden quality though since she couldn't actually fight with a spear she wouldn't know how to use it.

Promising herself to eventually hand the weapon over to Jade, she placed it in one of Nyla's bags before looking at Drayden with a raised eyebrow. He, however, was ignoring her in favor of looking at the other weapon that the Sword Dancer had given them.

A scythe.

Like the knives and the spear, the blade was darkly colored and even the rest of the scythe was a deep purple color, hints of black running through the grip. Though unlike the other two, some sort of rune marking was carved into the thick blade, a language that Valeria wasn't sure many people knew.

Yet something in the back of her mind was bouncing up and down.

"Aerbane…" Valeria breathed, the name suddenly scalding her brain, making her hiss when a headache formed.

"What did you say?" Drayden demanded, setting the scythe down. "Can you read the runes?"

Valeria shook her head, unsure why the name suddenly came to her. "No, I can't. I'm just tired, I never actually use those healing artes, so using it twice in a row has taken a toll."

Luke stretched his arms above his head. "I think the other barrier keeping the monsters out is still up, if we need to rest for a bit."

"There is no 'if' about it, we're resting, I need a nap," Valeria told the red head as she relaxed completely against Nyla's side. She'd worry about the scythe issue after she rested for a bit. Maybe then she'd be able to figure out if she was just day dreaming about the name or if she could actually understand the odd runes.

* * *

**Remember Aerbane, it will definitely be coming up later! Also, the next Sword Dancer might surprise you, it won't be where you expect. XD**


	23. Chapter 23

**A/N:**

**RK: So this is the second of three chapters promised for today, main reason? I'm a dork and forgot last month's. AND Happy Anniversary to Fonic Ascendance! It makes me happy to know I've gotten farther than I'd thought I would with this, especially with Mara gone.**

**So enjoy!**

* * *

When Valeria finally woke up from her nap, a couple of hours had passed. The others looked more rested as well, having also rested for the time. A few lemon gels later, and they were fit for travel, if only just. So with Drayden in the lead, the rest of them began following, their pace slow.

Valeria drank some more water, noticing that they would need to find a water source soon, seeing as she had used most of their water. Nyla had gripped at her, so she was riding on the Arka's back while she padded alongside Drayden.

Not that she was complaining. Even with the nap she'd taken, a lot of her energy was gone and she was feeling a little light headed.

So the question was, did that combo arte really take that much out of her? Or was it the double healing back to back?

"So hey..." Drayden started carefully.

"Yeah...?"

"What was that you said at the end of the fight?"

Valeria tilted her head. "What do you mean?"

"When you threw your knife at the thing, what did you say? It sounded like Ancient Ispanian, but I don't speak it fluently enough to understand what you said."

She must've been giving him some questioning looks since he ran his hand along the back of his neck. "Quod ego praecipio. Mundare," he quoted. "That's what you said right before the ice engulfed the thing."

"I didn't say that..." Valeria argued, though she wasn't very vehement about it. "I remember saying something about it needing to be purified but I didn't say anything in Ancient Ispanian."

Drayden let her argument fade, not saying anything for some time and seemingly getting lost in thought. Valeria did the same, letting her thoughts race through her mind as she took another drink of water. Eventually she recalled something.

"You know, you never did answer my question either."

"Oh?" Drayden asked, a curious note in his tone.

"You're a pure fonist, aren't you?"

"Ah, yes, I remember you asking me that. What makes you think I am?"

"Well," Valeria began, "besides the fact that you only used artes with the fifth fonon during the fight, they seemed to be more powerful than some of the artes I've seen other people cast."

Drayden chuckled. "You got me then, I'm a pure fonist. Course, it's easier for you to tell, huh? Being a pure fonist yourself, isn't that right?"

"I suppose," Valeria allowed.

They lapsed into silence for some time, neither of them saying anything. It was a bit before the silence was broken, but not by either of them.

"Hey Valeria?"

"Yeah Luke?"

"How do you keep coming up with those combo artes?"

Valeria remained silent, trying to think of the correct way to phrase her words. "Well, I guess I just have a tendency to pay attention to the fonons in the air; and when I see what they do and how they play with each other, I come up with the ideas for the artes."

"But wait," Guy spoke up, "I thought you could only do that with fourth fonons."

"I can only _manipulate_ fourth fonons, but, like other fonists and actually most people whether they know it or not, I can sense or even see what they do. I just have a higher sense of fourth fonons because my sense actively seek them out since that's what I'm dominant in. Sorry, I guess I didn't make that clear before."

"Yeah, same with me," Drayden agreed. "I can tell what other fonons are and kind of sense them; I just can never manipulate them. Luckily, especially since the human body actually generates its own heat, I never actually have to actively reach out to find fifth fonons."

"Lucky…" Valeria muttered as Luke and Guy nodded in understanding.

Drayden laughed at her before his gaze locked onto Luke, who had moved up to walk next to the two of them. "By the way…"

"Yeah?"

"Why don't you use fonic artes?"

"Huh?"

"Fonic artes. Why don't you use them? Your original has the ability to do so, which means that you have the capability to do so as well. So why not use them? It could open up your style of fighting a bit more and help out down the line."

Luke instantly froze, a shocked look on his face. The rest of them had to stop walking from his sudden stop and looked back at him, though he was staring at Valeria. "You told him?"

"Not hardly," Valeria snorted. "He already knew from some other source, most likely."

"I'm resourceful like that," Drayden grinned.

"And besides, it's not that big of a deal," she continued. "You're your own person, replica or not. And Asch is his own person, since Lorelai forbid the two of you are alike in some way. It's actually one big reason why I'm still around, I kind of want to see how you'll grow now that you know. Well, that and Jade likes to keep an eye on me."

Drayden tilted his head at her. "Really? I thought it was cause you didn't want him telling—"

"Shut up Drayden!"

"Right, got it." He nodded. "Back to what I was saying, why not use fonic artes?"

Luke turned sheepish. "I was never taught…"

Drayden seemed to ponder that for a minute before turning his thoughtful gaze on Valeria. "Couldn't you teach him the basics? I mean, I'm pretty sure Asch knows one or two fourth fonic artes, so Luke can learn those, right?"

Valeria opened her mouth to say no but thought about it. She'd seen Asch using Icicle Rain, so Luke could certainly learn some fourth fonic artes. And so long as she was watching him to make sure he was doing it correctly, it couldn't hurt to have him learn something that could help them all out in the future.

"Alright, yeah, fine, I can attempt to teach him when we have time. Now can we move along please?"

Drayden seemed amused by that but he let the conversation drop so they could get a move on, stopping only once at a nearby spring just so they could refill their waters. During most of the trip, Valeria chose to nap, still feeling drained from all the healing she'd managed to do, but when they arrived at the checkpoint, Nyla flicked one of her tails to wake her up.

As Drayden had expected, only Jade had been allowed through, leaving the rest of the group to wait. Natalia, Tear and Ion appeared to be talking while Anise was off to the side playing with Mieu. Everyone stopped what they were doing once the rest of them arrived and Valeria noticed that Natalia and Ion looked a bit shocked.

It took a moment to realize that two of the group was covered in a lot of blood and Guy's clothes had burn marks on them. Truthfully out of all of them, Nyla looked the cleanest, and that was mostly because her fur usually didn't attract a lot of dirt.

"Well, this is where I leave you; have to go make a few connections and the like." Drayden told them, a smirk on his face.

Valeria rolled her eyes and looked at Tear. "Stop this idiot and check his shoulder before he runs off please. I want to make sure it's actually fully healed."

Tear didn't even argue, most likely because of the blood still on Drayden's clothes, and pulled him down into a sitting position to begin running artes over him. Guy and Luke sat down near Ion to wait, but Valeria pointed at Natalia then at Guy and she moved closer to him and began looking him over as well.

Once the two healers were done with their checks, Valeria could tell there was a bit of confusion.

"Drayden's wound was healed so well that old scarring from a similar wound on his back is in the process of clearing itself up." Tear informed them.

"I can't even tell that Guy was injured, the only reason I knew where to look was because of the amount of fourth fonons against where the wound was. How was it they were healed?"

Valeria sighed. "I tried an ancient arte to heal them, but I've only done it once before so I wasn't sure how well it works."

"Then you were the one who healed the injuries back in Keterberg, weren't you?" Tear asked her.

Valeria shook her head. "Not exactly, I only healed the injury on my shoulder, not anything else. I don't know who healed the rest of it when you found me."

Drayden stood just then, stretching his arms above his head. "Not that this isn't fun and all, but I really do need to leave. Thanks for the healings and all, I'll see you around."

"Tell Lillium she owes me big this time," Valeria told him.

"You and me both; she should've said what she was getting me into when she told me to team up with you." Drayden muttered as he walked back the way they'd come.

Once he was gone Valeria turned to Luke. "Come sit across from me, we have time so we might as well use it."

Natalia and Tear looked at the two of them in confusion making Luke's face turn red. He ran his hand along his neck, laughing lightly. "Heh, so um… Valeria's going to try and teach me to use fonic artes…"

They looked surprised, though Tear didn't look too worried and nodded to Valeria. "I've already begun teaching him about fonology, so that should help out with what you're teaching."

Valeria breathed a sigh of relief." Just you telling me that and not adding that he's an idiot about it make me feel loads better about this. Anything I should know?"

"Details help."

"Okay, good to know."

"I'm sitting right here you two…" Luke muttered.

"Hush, the teachers are talking," Valeria admonished.

Guy blinked at them before beginning to laugh, the red head shoving at his shoulders before moving to sit down in front of Valeria.

"So obviously you know, or are learning, about feeling for fonons, since that's what Tear's been teaching you. So let's begin a little bit further than that…"

For the next few hours, Valeria explained the theories and mechanics needed to use fonic artes, going over detailed explanations that fonists are supposed to know in order to make the fonons work with them. She had to hand it to Luke, he actually seemed interested in learning about fonic artes, even going so far as to ask questions to understand better. It didn't even seem to bother him that Valeria wouldn't allow him to attempt to use fonic artes any time soon, let alone trying one in battle.

Finally Valeria stretched out and laid back on the ground, kicking her foot out and smudging the diagrams she'd drawn in the dirt. "I'm done, this is getting annoying."

"The two of you have been going over everything for a little over than two hours anyway," Guy noted.

Anise and Tear had sat down near the two of them as well, midway through an explanation, deciding to listen and interject information on a couple of things Valeria had been explaining. Now the two of them were looking at Valeria oddly, and she was sadly getting used to the looks.

"I'm getting bored now…" Valeria muttered.

The others looked like they were going to agree until a scream tore through the air.

Tear quickly got up, looking around towards Theor Forest. "What was that?!"

"A scream..." Mieu's ears dropped down as he shuffled closer to Luke.

"Let's go!" Natalia ordered before Valeria could mention that it probably wasn't the best idea.

They all rushed up the hill and into the beginning of the forest, Valeria and Nyla at the back, the blonde silently giving orders to the Arka.

When the two caught up, Natalia and Tear were bent over a fallen soldier, attempting to heal him. Luke was looking worried as the healings didn't seem to be taking. "Hang on!"

"Those were Oracle soldiers..." The soldier coughed, blood spurting from his mouth. "Damn it..."

Valeria's eyes widened and she quickly scanned the forest around them. When nothing really seemed out of the ordinary, she had to wonder what the Oracle Knights were really planning. So far as she knew, there wasn't anything around here that would be of interest to them.

Unless…

"Oracle?! Could Van be involved…?" Tear mumbled, sitting back once the soldier stopped breathing.

"What's he trying to do in Grand Chokmah?" Luke asked.

"Maybe he's working on destroying a Sephiroth Tree?"

"No," Ion informed them, cutting off Anise's theory, "there shouldn't be a Sephiroth in this area..."

"We're not getting anywhere standing around talking! Let's go get them!"

"Yes." Natalia agreed with Luke. "We cannot permit this kind of wanton violence."

"Wait! If we go in without permission and the Malkuth soldiers find us..." Tear began hesitantly.

"We'll just have to stay hidden." Guy reasoned. "The last thing we want is a fight with Malkuth."

Valeria sighed, moving to step in front of the group as they tried to walk forward. "You know, I'm kinda finding it funny that you all are walking in without consulting the Malkuth citizen on this…"

"Ah…" Guy laughed uncomfortably.

"Why are you stopping us Valeria? The Oracle Knights are harming your fellow Malkuth soldiers!"

"Did I say I was going to stop you all, Natalia?" Valeria interjected. "Cause I believe the only thing that came from my mouth was that you weren't consulting me."

"Ah, right. Sorry…"

"Now, Nyla and I have had many experiences making our way through this forest without getting caught. The two of us can direct you all through the ways the soldiers typically take, and even show you ways they normally don't check." Valeria explained. "Ion, you'll have to ride on Nyla with Mieu. Anise and Tear, the two of you will go with them. I'll lead Guy, Luke and Natalia since of the group, they're the fastest."

"Why split us off like that?" Anise asked her.

"A larger group will make it easier for the Malkuth soldiers, or even the Oracle Knights, to spot us, and we obviously don't want that. Nyla is going to lead you through the paces where she can blend in better and move slower, whereas the group with me is faster so we can quickly skirt around soldiers that come near us. We'll be taking a slightly longer route through the forest but we should all still get to the other side around the same time, hopefully. Also, as we go through we need to keep an eye out for the Oracle Knights." Valeria looked around at all of them. "Anyone have any questions?"

When no one offered any, she nodded. "Okay, let's go then."

Her group quickly fell into step with her, moving quickly when she told them to speed up. Luke and Guy were looking around hesitantly as Valeria began leading them through a bunch of underbrush. Even Natalia seemed to hesitate going through the leaves when they didn't know what was on the other side.

"Hey Valeria, I was wondering, why do you and Nyla sneak out of the city all the time?" Natalia asked after they'd been sneaking for a little bit.

Turning around, Valeria walked backwards to look at them, seeing that Luke and Guy were curious as well. "I used to always have someone following me around because of my family. Because it happened all the time, I got fed up with it. So I began escaping by myself, before Nyla was given to me. Once she and I had bonded, I had to come up with other ways to get out of the city since she'd so big and all of the ways I had gotten out before were for smaller people. So we decided to start mapping out the patrols in the forest, but there were a lot of times where we'd get caught, though we eventually did learn the routes. So now, all we have to do is see the positions of two soldiers and we know who is going to be where."

"So what, you didn't like being followed so you just decided to leave the city?"

"Yep," she told Luke, amused by the shock in his voice. "Because of when I was a slave, I hate it when people try and control me. So I took matters into my own hands."

They all looked down when she brought up being a former slave but she shrugged. They knew, so it wasn't like she could make them forget, so why should she try and hide how she is.

"Okay, quiet. We're heading into a section of the forest we need to be careful in. Follow my moves and make no noise."

By the time Valeria said it was okay for them to talk again, they'd been creeping through the forest for over an hour, possibly longer. They'd had to duck down, crawl around and even climb a couple of times in order to avoid scouts but now they were finally almost out of the forest.

She even had to hand it to the others with her, they'd moved fast than she'd thought they would, so they made great time.

"We can stop here and wait for the others to catch up. If Nyla went the way I think she did, they'll be here in no more than ten minutes."

"We haven't seen any Oracle Knights…" Luke muttered.

Natalia nodded as she looked around. However, she must've seen something since she gasped a moment later. "There's a Malkuth soldier on the ground!"

Valeria whirled around to where Natalia saw the soldier right as the princess rushed over there. The blonde was also the one who first saw the scythe coming down towards the princess. "Natalia!"

Natalia looked up the moment Valeria screamed, seeing the scythe and rolled to the side and out of the way. As she rose into a crouch Natalia pulled out her bow and shot an arrow at her attacker. Largo deflected it with his hand, smirking. "Not bad for a princess!"

"You're the one from the desert! You're Largo!"

Valeria frowned, backing away from Luke as he ran to Natalia. "So, you're the intruder! What are you doing in Grand Chokmah?!"

By now, Valeria had drawn a blade from her weapon's pouch, her eyes flicking around the area. Largo wouldn't be here by himself, so where, and who, was his partner?

"You'd better keep an eye on more than just what's in front of you, boy." Largo informed Luke.

"What?"

The moment Largo began talking, Valeria had noticed a sudden change coming from Guy. The swordsman had become rigid and jerked suddenly, drawing his sword. Valeria cursed and ran forward, knowing what was about to happen and wanted to intersect Guy as he rushed toward Luke. She rammed into him, knocking him off course so that his sword sank into the ground rather than the red head.

"Guy?!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, what's going on!?"

Valeria looked over at Anise, glad Nyla's group had showed up. The Arka perked up after a moment, growling softly. Tear took that to mean that Nyla wanted Ion off her back, and the moment Ion was off the canine ran forward and rammed herself against Largo, the large man unable to move in time.

As she did that, Guy stood up and began attacking Luke once more, the red head pulling out his sword just in time. Valeria dashed forward as well, drawing another knife and diving in front of another attack from Guy, Luke too scared to do anything but block.

"Oh no! The curse slot! Sync must be nearby!"

Valeria would've loved to respond to Ion but she needed to keep her attention focused on Guy, who seemed really intent on killing Luke. He lunged at Luke once more though Valeria dove in front of him again, blades parrying the sword. She kicked her foot out, hitting Guy in the stomach and sending him sprawling to the ground. He rolled to his feet, bypassing Valeria to swing at Luke, making her curse under her breathe.

As this was going on, Largo moved past Nyla, clear wanting to have a go at some of the others. "Don't forget about me!"

Before he could move, however, he was stopped by Natalia's arrow. "Oh no you don't!"

"Hah hah hah hah hah hah! Not bad, princess!" Largo praised Natalia as he moved to shield himself from Nyla's next lunge.

Because of her distraction in paying attention to Nyla, Valeria was unable to keep Guy from disarming Luke, the blond raising his blade to harm to red head.

"Ah! Another earthquake!" Anise cried as the ground began to quake.

Valeria dropped into a crouch; hand on the ground to wait it out. The others weren't as lucky, most of them fell to the ground though apparently Tear had enough sense to keep looking around as she tried to stable herself.

"Natalia, up there!"

Natalia looked to where Tear was pointing and fired an arrow a moment later. The arrow sailed through the air, flying into the tree. Moments later, Sync came falling out of the tree, crashing to the ground in a heap and letting out a grunt of pain. Guy groaned and an odd violet light pulsed on his arm before the swordsman fell over unconscious.

Sync cursed. "…The earthquake gave me away."

Luke got on the defensive. "Are you after Ion? Or something else?!"

Even Anise got serious, moving in front of Ion. "Who's ordering you? Grand Maestro Mohs? The Commandant?"

"Either way, it's the same. We need Fon Master Ion." Largo told them, his gaze still on Nyla as she faced him down. He made a move forward but she growled deeply at him, claws digging into the ground for a moment before she appeared to notice something.

"We thought he'd perished along with Akzeriuth," Sync scoffed, "but I guess he's tougher than the town."

"How dare you speak so shamelessly! You destroyed an entire city!"

"Don't accuse us." Sync sneered at Natalia. "The one who destroyed Akzeriuth was that replica there."

Natalia nocked another arrow to her bow as Luke and Tear got ready to attack the two God Generals, but Valeria took that moment to move before the rest of them could, the blonde followed closely by Nyla.

"Valeria!?"

"Hurt him again, and we'll do the same to you…" Valeria told them, her eyes daring them to move forward as her hands tightened on her knives. Nyla growled in agreement, moving closer to help Valeria stand protectively in front of Sync.

"What?!"

Valeria ignored Luke, grabbing one of the water pouches from Nyla and moved back to Sync. The green haired teen knelt there, frozen. Though whether it was because his injury was bothering him, or if he was just surprised, Valeria didn't know.

"This is going to hurt a little," Valeria informed him.

"Wha—" Sync began but cut off when Valeria pulled the arrow from within his shoulder. Sync hissed at the pain and tried to back away from her, but she clamped one of her hands on his uninjured shoulder.

"Hold still, I'm going to try something…" Valeria ordered him softly, listening as Nyla growled at someone.

"What are you doing Valeria?!"

Once again, Valeria ignored Luke to focus on Sync, dousing his injured arm in water. She then began to pull at the fourth fonons in the air and those from within the water. She'd done this before, first with Blaine as well as with Guy and Drayden, so it was possible for her to heal.

Even still, she wasn't sure doing another arte such as this so close to the others likely wasn't a good idea. The first time she'd gotten a relief from all the fourth fonons in the air, and now…

It took a moment to realize there were a lot more fourth fonons than she'd thought, but since they were closer to Grand Chokmah now she shouldn't be surprised.

Valeria shook her head, the sooner she attempted to heal the injury, the sooner it would work or wouldn't work.

Stretching her senses, Valeria continued to pull at the fonons, sweat forming on her brow as she pushed them against the wound on Sync's arm. Normally the fonons would be willing to play with what she wanted, but this time they struggled to do what she asked. Ever so slowly, the blood stopped seeping from the wound and began mingling with the water on his skin. The mixture moved back up his arm and disappeared into the wound as it knitted itself back together.

Right as the wound finished, with only a small red line where the injury was, Valeria let out a breath, her head pounding.

"How did you…?" Sync breathed softly, so only she could hear it.

Valeria smirked. "You know me, the over achiever…"

"Better question, why?"

Valeria looked him straight in the eyes, knowing exactly where they were located beneath his stupid mask that she was itching to snatch from his face. "You really have to ask that? I'll always take you side, always."

She stood then, shaky after expending so much energy on that. Apparently it hadn't taken as long as she'd thought, even though her body was beginning to feel the effects of the constant healings, since the only changes that had been made was Nyla, the canine having moved closer to the two of them. The others, even Largo, looked shocked at what she'd just done, not that she cared.

"What's going on here?!"

All at once, everyone looked to where the voice had come from, all of them forgetting where exactly they were in all the commotion.

"Largo, we're retreating for now!" Sync ordered, though he spared a glance at Valeria. "Thanks…"

Valeria nodded to him, knowing she was the only one to hear him voice his appreciation. She moved to the side to let Largo rush past her, glaring at the older man when he gave her a strange look.

"Who the hell are you people?!" One of the Malkuth soldiers demanded as he came over.

Tear stepped up, trying to defuse the situation and calm everyone down. "We spotted some suspicious figures while waiting for Colonel Curtiss. We pursued them here."

"You mean the people who just ran away?"

"They're soldiers of the Oracle Knights. They wounded one of our companions."

"But you've got Oracle Knights in your group as well… arrest them," he told his companions. The soldier then looked over in surprise. "Heiress Frings?! What are you doing here?"

Everyone was looking at her, and she could tell by the looks given to her from Ion and Tear that they were worried she would turn them in or something. It shouldn't bother her, but it did. Did they really expect her to be petty and lie?

Finally she looked at the soldier who'd addressed her. "I'm escorting this group here through the forest to see Emperor Peony. It's as they say, we encountered Oracle Knight who had seemed intent on getting into the city, having killed a few of the soldiers. Some are here and two are towards the beginning of the checkpoint. Colonel Curtiss will vouch for us as well."

Now she could feel the surprised relief from the group, but she kept her eyes on the soldier so he wouldn't believe she was lying about the situation. He seemed to hesitate for a moment before nodding his head. "Then we won't arrest them, but we will need to confiscate their weapons until one of the higher ups gives us the okay to return them."

"That'll be fine. You'll escort us to the city?"

"Of course," the soldier saluted.

Tear and Luke shared a look before nodding and handed over their weapons to the soldier who collected them, that done Luke walked to Guy and helped him get up, a soldier helping by grabbing the blond's other side.

Valeria sighed, just imagining the pain the conversation the others would likely pull on her later.

She honestly could say she wasn't looking forward to it at all.

* * *

**Want to know a fun fact? I hadn't originally planned on letting Luke learn artes but I have a plot bunny that wants to happen later on that I'm still not sure will happen but it requires Luke to know the basics and be ready to cast. Yay for the plot bunnies, right!?**


	24. Chapter 24

**A/N:**

**RK: And the third and final chapter promised today! In case you missed it, this is the anniversary of Fonic Ascendance and I posted THREE chapters today! If you came to the most recent chapter, halt, turn around and go back to chapter 22, and then come back to this one after you read 22 and 23.**

**Enjoy! (And maybe review? As a anniversary gift? LOL)**

* * *

During the entire trip into the city, Valeria could feel the eyes of the others on her. Even without looking, she could tell they were upset, or at least, unnerved about what she'd done back in the forest. Though it was clear they weren't able to do anything, especially since they currently had an escort who would protect her and take them down if it came to it.

They also seemed to realize that the only reason they were allowed to walk around without being legitimately in custody, and in chains, was because of her. Had she not spoken up for them, she doubted they'd be treated as nicely.

As they grew closer and the city came into view she heard a couple intakes of breath. That made her smile, since she had to agree, the city was beautiful. There was water everywhere, waterfalls and moats, fountains and canals; the entire city was made to focus around the water, with many ports that connect to the ocean. The walls of the city were definitely high, and from here Valeria could see all the soldiers and barricades that made the city such a fortress, but it just seemed to add to the beauty of the city.

Her senses also loved being in the city, with the amount of fourth fonons filled there, they brushed against her mental senses and always seemed to send her energy high into the air.

They passed the first set of soldiers at the checkpoint of the city and were walking further in when they were greeted by a full platoon of soldiers. The leader of the platoon walked forward and Valeria winced as she hopped from Nyla's back to walk toward with the soldier who'd been escorting them.

"Brigadier General Frings!"

"Good work. We'll take them from here, I trust that won't be a problem?"

"Understood sir," he saluted before turning to her and bowed. "Heiress."

The General looked at the group behind her, pointedly ignoring her for the moment. "You're Luke, correct? Son of Duke Fabre."

"How do you know who I am?"

"Colonel Curtiss asked me to go meet you outside Theor Forest. Though it seems you entered the forest before I could do so…"

"I apologize. Malkuth soldiers had been killed. We thought it would be dangerous not to act…" Tear explained, her eyes flicking from Valeria to Frings and back.

"Don't apologize, we should be thanking you." He told them, but then he sighed. "But, with all the commotion, I'm afraid I can't give you your weapons back until you meet with His Majesty."

"Who cares about that?! Guy needs help!"

"He's had a curse slot placed on him." Ion explained, seeing that Frings was surprised at the outburst from Luke. "It's so deep he can't fight it. I can remove it if you lend us a place where he can rest."

"You can do that?"

"I'm probably the only one who can." Ion told Luke sadly. "This curse is a type of Daathic fonic arte, a fonic arte passed down only through Fon Masters."

"We'll get you a room in the inn. What about your audience with His Majesty?"

"I'll see His Majesty the Emperor at another opportunity. Right now, I'm worried about Guy."

"Understood, I'll have my men escort you to the room and keep guard there."

"I'm staying too! I'm Ion's guard!"

"Wait, so am I!" Luke added.

"I'm sure you'd find out sometime, so I guess I'll tell you now. A curse slot can't be used to take full control of the target."

"What does that mean?"

"A curse slot stirs up memories and paralyzes rational thought." Ion told the red head, a sad look on his face. "Guy wouldn't have attacked you if he didn't already have a strong desire to kill you… That's what it means."

"What…?"

In all honestly, the look on Luke's face would normally make Valeria laugh, but since the situation was serious, she held her tongue. Well that, and she was trying to figure out if she could get out of this group without getting into trouble.

"You mustn't get near Guy until I've removed the curse."

Once Guy was carted away by some soldiers, followed by Ion and Anise; Frings finally turned to her.

"What am I going to do with you?" He asked her, crossing his arms across his chest.

Valeria laughed under her breath. He's asked her this questions many times, any time she would be brought back into the city and placed in front of him. And each time, she had the same answer to give him. "Let me go?"

"Valeria… Not only did you sneak out of the city without a note this time, but you've been gone far longer than you have ever been gone without some form of contact. You also missed the gala mother required you to be at, something that had been planned for almost a year in advance."

Valeria flinched, she could've sworn she left a note but what had her feeling even more guilty was when she did the mental math. Sure enough, the gala their mother had required her to be at had passed by just last week.

Ironically, had they not had the issues with the Tartarus breaking down, they would've likely made it just in time for her mother's assistants to swoop in and take her away.

Valeria frowned as she stared her brother down, unnerved by the look on his face. He looked patient, not annoyed or angry like he normally was when she was placed in front of him. Finally, he just nodded.

That nod had Valeria instantly on edge, knowing what was coming. "Aslan, you traitor!"

The remainder of the group looked surprised as Valeria suddenly ducked and hid behind Tear. The melodist jerked in surprise, allowing the three females who'd stepped from their hiding placed to grab a hold of Valeria. They clamped down on her arms and bound her in rope, nodding to Valeria's brother as they carried her away, Valeria kicking and screaming the entire time.

* * *

"I have half a mind to lock you up in a room and throw away the key."

Valeria flinched once again, hating the disapproving tone she was hearing as the lecture continued. The lecture had been going on for at least a good thirty minutes and it was still going.

"You knew, knew how important this Gala was and yet you still raced off into the sunset—"

"I left before the sun came up…"

"—Do not interrupt me again young lady! Yulia, Valeria! I understand entirely too well how little you like being cooped up, Lorelai knows how little I've encouraged the others into corralling you, but this is stretching it past where I can allow. Do you know how many other nobles felt slighted when you weren't there? At the Gala our family was hosting? A Gala that had been planned since last year? Even your brother, who was out at another command post, came back for the Gala like he was supposed too!"

She waited a couple of moments before she felt like her mother wasn't going to explode again. "We actually would've made it in time… But our ship broke down and needed emergency repairs…"

The heat from Farrah's gaze had her quieting once more. "You're lucky I heard the same exact answer from Colonel Curtiss or you would be in even more trouble than you already are. Regardless, you were required to be here two days ahead of time and yet you were off gallivanting with Colonel Curtiss and getting yourself injured," Farrah scowled at her when she cringed. "Oh yes, I heard about the incident in Keterberg as well as what happened in Deo Pass."

"Ah, um…"

"It bothers me that you would think you could hide these incidents from me, when you know Colonel Curtiss always informs me of information regarding your well-being. Including some of the new friends you seem to be having." Farrah paused for a moment, as if she remembered something. "Ah, that reminds me, I had been informed by one of the servants that you have a guest here waiting for you."

Valeria was still reeling from the revelation that Jade actually sends progress reports on her, so it took a moment for her to realize what her mother just said. "Visitor…?"

Farrah sighed, placing her immaculately nailed hand against her hip, something Valeria realized she must've picked up from the woman. "Yes, I said visitor. Though how they knew you were here when you only arrived two hours ago is beyond me, but I shall relent with this conversation while you get rid of them."

Valeria inclined her head and rose carefully, walking out of her mother's study and following the servant outside to where her visitor waited.

She honestly shouldn't have been surprised when she came into the room to view Lillium in the middle of the room checking out the décor. The ombre haired woman turned when she entered and raised an eyebrow at the blonde that had her scowling.

Yeah, she'd only been getting lectured by her mother for about thirty or so minutes, so before that she'd been attacked by the woman's maids. They'd bathed her, scrubbing in a lot of annoying places, pulling at her hair as they washed that as well before toweling her off and stuffing her into a fancy dress and styling her hair in an intricate bun atop her head.

And worst of all?

The stupid heels that had been placed on her feet that made her feel like a fool as she occasionally stumbled in them.

Lillium looked close to laughing when Valeria actually did stumble, catching herself on the table to her right.

"Shut up..." Valeria grumbled. "What are you doing here?"

"You're not going to ask how I knew you were here?"

Valeria rolled her eyes at Lillium's done. "And insult the both of us? Not likely," she scoffed. "Seriously though, why are you here?"

"Drayden informed me of the job well done." The older woman smirked, running her fingers along the curls resting against her chest. "Well, it was more like he cursed me out for a good five minutes, even so he let me know it's done. I knew you could handle it, no problem."

No problem? More like problem central, the stupid thing had been hard to fight and had only been dispersed by a miracle.

"In any case, I have your payment for that, as well as the rest of the payment for your first task. I even tossed in a bit more because of the coding you did back in the cavern." Lillium tossed a small pouch her way. Valeria caught it and wrapped the straps around her wrist without bothering to check the contents. She knew it was similar to a wing pack, but used only for money. It was common use in the Underworld for transporting large amounts of money due to large bounties or tasks, and she also knew that Lillium wouldn't bother trying to cheat her. The information dealer knew that if she did that then Valeria wouldn't ever give her any other help.

"That it?"

"No," Lillium dug into a back pocked and pulled out a folded piece of paper. "I have some information about St. Binah that just arrived before I came here. Depending on what your Emperor tells you, it may be useful or he may have all the same information we know. It should be useful for you when you head out."

Valeria raised her eyebrow. She didn't know whether that meant the Underworld decided to supply the Malkuth leaders with the information or if they'd gotten the information from them. The Info Dealers did always like to play a tug of war game with what they're willing to share.

"What makes you think I'm leaving?"

Lillium merely rolled her eyes. "As if you wouldn't go and see what's going on, you've been known to be curious."

She had a point.

"Besides, I know another reason why you refuse to stay in one spot and it starts with an 'N'."

Valeria glared at Lillium, not even bothering to voice her hatred as the woman laughed.

"I'll see myself out, catch you around. Oh, and if you find any info I might be interested in, you know I'll pay you for it."

The moment she was gone, Farrah walked into the room, giving Valeria a look. "Do I actually need to lock you up?"

"I take it you heard that last part?"

Her mother sighed. "Valeria… This has got to stop… You really can't keep running off like this."

While she understood where her mother was coming from, Valeria also knew that she couldn't just stop. "Did Jade tell you everything?"

"What do you mean by 'everything'?"

"Mom… Before Jade found me… I was kept as a slave…" Valeria told her slowly, eyeing her mother to make sure she wouldn't react too badly to the news. "And now… My former masters have found out about me and my location. So they're coming after me to reclaim me, and I doubt I'll be able to remain safe if I stay in one place all the time, not anymore."

Farrah had tensed when Valeria mentioned she was a former slave. Finally she moved forward and pulled Valeria into a hug. "I had a feeling it was something like that, but I never wanted you to feel obligated to tell me…"

"Mom…"

"No, it's okay. It doesn't make a different to me; you're still my child now, no matter what."

"Even if I always keep running off into the sunset?"

"Even if you run off at midnight."

Valeria sniffed, trying to keep her tears inside. It had been a long time since she's actually cried due to happiness, a long time since she'd cried in general, and she honestly couldn't keep them in. It had been hard to imagine what Farrah might've thought, what she might decide about the girl she'd allowed into her home and into her family. But to know that Farrah still loved her lifted a weight off Valeria's shoulders that she didn't even know she had.

Now she just had to figure out how, and when, to tell her brother…

* * *

Like it or not, Farrah did allow Valeria to run off to the palace, once she promised to come back and say goodbye before leaving. Valeria knew she needed to be there when the others finally got a chance to meet with the emperor.

She didn't even bother trying to see if she can find her brother, since she had a feeling he'd let the others wander around the inner portion of the city; instead she went ahead and made her way to the throne room.

When she entered the room, the only people in there were Peony and Sesemann, the two obviously preparing for the audience.

Peony looked over as she entered, standing in surprise. "Valeria! Where have you been?!"

Valeria frowned. "Didn't Jade tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

"I've been with him since before he entered Batical, I thought he would've mentioned that in a report or something." She told Peony, stopping right before she got to the throne.

"So you're the Malkuth soldier that survived…"

The question marks must've been visibly sprouting from her head since Sesemann took pity on her. "His reports stated that he had a single Malkuth soldier with him, though the entire time he never mentioned any names."

"I wonder why he did that..."

"If I know Jade, it was to keep the council off all our backs. You know what would happen if it became clear that you were involved." Peony told her, a knowing look on his face.

Valeria scowled. "I don't have any honest claim though, you made sure of that. In fact, yours was just because you wanted to make sure I had some form of family before Aslan brought the matter to Farrah."

"Be that as it may, we would've still had to do something. Which," he added pointedly, "is why it's always worrisome when you wander off outside the city by yourself."

Valeria was going to respond but then Nordheim walked into the room. "Your Majesty, Colonel Curtiss' group is waiting to see you."

Valeria shared a look with Peony, they both knew this conversation wasn't over. Though Valeria had a feeling it would be pushed back further than the Emperor thought it would.

Walking around the back of Peony's throne, Valeria leaned against it, finding it amusing when none of the others said anything about it. Of course, it was a common occurrence, so she wasn't surprised they'd given up on her lack of manners on the matter. In fact, had Peony gotten up to pace, as he occasionally does, she probably would've taken his spot.

Sure, she could've sat in the other throne just to annoy the others, but where's the fun in that?

Jade's group was led in moments later, Aslan at the back of the group to make sure they got in okay. He apparently noticed her leaning against the throne, since he gave her a look and shook his head. Her brother didn't act on whatever he must've been thinking, since he turned around and left.

Valera looked at the group with an amused expression as they came to a stop a couple of feet in front of the throne. Luke looked a bit nervous as did Natalia, though the princess's case was likely because she didn't want to start any other issues.

"Ah, you must be the ones dragging my Jade all over the place and keeping him away from home," Peony joked, keeping a straight face.

It had the desired effect, since Luke had the most peculiar look on his face. "...What?"

Peony sighed. "And then he goes and gets hit with a fon slot seal. This clod can be a real pain, huh?"

"N-not at all, Your Majesty..." Luke stuttered.

"Your Majesty, must you confuse our guests?" Jade asked pointedly, effectively ruining Peony's fun.

Valeria snickered under her breath, the snicker almost turning into full laughter when she heard Peony give a snort after hearing her.

"Hah hah, sorry. Yeah, I guess we should get down to business. Jade's basically explained everything to me."

"As things stand now, there is a danger that St. Binah could fall into the Qliphoth."

"So it seems," Peony agreed with Luke. "In fact, I've already been informed that the land around St. Binah has begun sagging."

Natalia gasped. "Then we must evacuate the residents!"

"I'd love to, but a lot of the council members are reluctant."

"Why? Their countrymen are in danger..." Natalia demanded.

Valeria knew what Jade was about to say even before he said it, the information Lillium had given her had explained just exactly what was going on.

"Because of the military threat from Kimlasca."

Nordheim cleared his throat. "The Kingdom of Kimlasca-Lanvaldear issued a proclamation."

"We hereby denounce Malkuth's destruction of Akzeriuth in order to bring about the deaths of Princess Natalia and the tertiary heir to the throne, Luke fon Fabre. in the name of Lorelei and Yulia, we shall initiate immediate sanctions." Sesemann quoted.

Tear frowned. "For all intents and purposes, that's a declaration of war."

"My father is mistaken!"

"Or is he, Princess Natalia?" Nordheim interjected. "We believe that Kimlasca may have destroyed Akzeriuth to create an excuse for war."

"My country would never commit such a despicable act!"

"Yeah! And besides… I was the one who…"

"Luke. We all know what happened." Jade interrupted. "Natalia, please calm down. It doesn't matter now whether Kimlasca destroyed Akzeriuth to start a war or not."

"Yes," Peony agreed. "The problem is that the council believes that the sinking of St. Binah is Kimlasca's work."

Valeria honestly could say that she didn't really like the council. It was made up of a bunch of idiotic fools who liked to squabble all day which didn't allow a lot of things to get done in a timely manner; making things even worse during dire situations. Add to the fact that the council had almost made it impossible for her to have a family and that didn't endear them to her.

"So they think that any forces sent to rescue the citizens will be wiped out along with the city." Tear reasoned.

"Exactly. Until we heard Jade's story, we'd thought Kimlasca had developed a fontech weapon capable of creating a hyperresonance."

"At the very least, Kimlasca was not responsible for Akzeriuth."

Valeria thought differently on that point, especially after reading the papers that Drayden had given her. She knew about the score reading that had happened in the throne room before Luke had left the castle, and she knew the words on the fonstone after what had been cut off.

_'The youth will turn power to calamity and be as a weapon of Kimlasca'_

It made a couple of things fall into place. Like why Kimlasca was willing to send someone who had not been fully trained and had been sheltered for most of his life, to a city as an Ambassador. They had to have some idea about it, so they were actually kinda responsible for sending Luke there and causing the collapse to happen.

"And even if it were, St. Binah is still going to fall. How can NOT rescuing them possibly be better?!" Luke bowed his head slightly. "…I'm sorry, Your Majesty. I don't mean to be rude. If it's impossible to send troops, then please let us go."

"Allow me to make the same request." Natalia offered. "If something happens, at least Malkuth forces won't be caught in it."

"I'm surprised," Peony stated calmly. "Why are royalty like yourselves so intent on helping an enemy country?"

"We're not enemies!" Natalia argued. "Our citizens travel between our countries as if it were perfectly normal."

Yes, because Kaitzur was completely normal, Valeria thought to herself, snorting softly. And that's saying something when she'd only been on the Malkuth side once while getting supplies. The military presence there was astounding and they checked passports more strictly there than in Chesedonia.

"And it's my duty as one born into the royal family to aid those in need," Natalia continued.

Peony nodded thoughtfully, sharing a look with Valeria before turning to Luke. "…And you, Master Luke?"

"I am a criminal to Malkuth. I am to blame for what's happening. I want to do anything I can." Luke stared directly at Peony, determination clear in his face. "I want to save everyone!"

"Well you heard them, what do you think Sesemann? Your dearest apprentice, Jade, also says we can trust these guys regarding St. Binah."

"Your Majesty, it's not polite to refer to them as 'these guys'."

"If I may make a suggestion," Jade spoke up," perhaps Luke and my unit could evacuate St. Binah, while General Nordheim contains the northward moving Kimlascan army."

Sesemann looked amused. "Are you giving a general orders? Well, I suppose it will work. We'll try to gain the council's approval."

Peony nodded gratefully. "Thanks, man. I owe you one."

"Then, you won't abandon St. Binah…?"

"Of course not." Peony informed Luke, standing and walking forward and placing his hand on Luke's shoulder. "Though you all are the ones who're going to save it. They are my dearest people, please help us save them."

"I'll do everything in my power."

"As will I." Natalia agreed with Luke.

"As you wish, Your Majesty." Tear told Peony.

Valeria waited just a moment before speaking up as well. "I'm going as well."

All eyes fell on Valeria, three sets of those eyes also having a frown on their faces. Peony turned around and crossed his arms, looking intently at her. However, he didn't speak a single word, instead it was Sesemann who spoke up.

"Heiress… I don't believe it would be wise for you to go to St. Binah."

"And why is that?" she demanded. "I've been military trained, even if I'm not actually in the military," Valeria held up a finger, "Jade used me during the evacuation of Akzeriuth, which is one of the main reasons we managed to get as many people out that we did. A majority of the civilians who are alive were from my sectors of the town," she held up another finger, "and I know how to work well with Jade and his men." Another finger was added to the tally.

"Because of your status—"

"My status is about the same as my mother's, and you know it. The council can gripe all they want, but because of them, I really am only an heiress to inherit Farrah's title. And that is only when she actually decides to step down, since her title is different from Aslan's inheritance."

Peony was smirking covertly at her words, she could clearly tell. Valeria wasn't sure how he felt about her going to St. Binha again, but she really needed to make her case. Farrah already know about her need to be out of the city, the two of them had had a longer conversation about that. But unless she got permission from Peony to leave, she'd have a hell of a time sneaking out now. Especially since the council was getting up in arms about her leaving all the time.

They really did need to make up their minds about her…

"Heiress—" Sesemann started again.

"No," Peony interrupted. "It'll be good for there to be a noble presence there. Jade will look after her if that helps, or I could just tell the council that our lovely escape artist ran off again if it'll be easier."

Valeria frowned at him. "Very funny…"

Peony chuckled. "I have to summon the council, now. I'll let you handle the rest, Jade. Keep Valeria safe and all that, okay?"

Together, Peony, Sesemann and Nordheim all walked out of the audience hall, leaving Jade's group there to talk things over.

The Colonel was looking at Valeria now, and sighed. "You really like making things difficult, don't you?"

Valeria smirked. "Of course! Besides, it takes a lot of prep to evacuate a city, you'll need some of the strategies I was taught, it'll help out. That, and…" she sighed. "If I stay here, the odds of them coming after me are higher than if I go with you…"

It looked like he'd been thinking the same thing as well, since he nodded grimly.

Leave it to Luke to turn the conversation back to something useful.

"What should we do, exactly?"

"As His Majesty said, the military won't enter the city for fear of it becoming another Akzeriuth. We'll enter St. Binah first and get help from former Field Marshal McGovern."

"I'll meet you guys at the entrance of the city in an hour, that cool?" Valeria asked them once it looked like they were about to head out.

Jade smirked. "What Valeria, not planning on fighting in those clothes?"

"I'll punch you, don't think I won't. I actually managed a hit on one of the maids before they got it on me."

"Go get Nyla, Valeria. We'll wait for you at the inn," Jade ordered.

"Not at the city entrance?"

"Don't sass me, just go do what you need to do, we'll see you there."

* * *

Valeria quickly finished up what she needed to do at the mansion, mostly to change, grab Nyla and some more of her money. That done she quickly made a stop at an item shop to gather more supplies before she made her way to the inn to meet up with the others.

The two of them got there right as they were exiting the inn with Guy, the blond looking better than he had before. On the other hand, it seems like he took all of the energy straight from Ion, the Fon Master looking really tired.

"We taking Ion with us?"

Jade looked over at the two of them and nodded. "Yes, this way we can make sure the God Generals don't come after him here."

"Can't argue that logic," Valeria agreed. "Anyway, Nyla and I are ready to go. Oh and Jade? Farrah said thanks for the updates and she wanted to let you know that she owes you a lunch date."

Jade sighed. "Don't phrase it like that please."

"Wait a second!"

Everyone looked at Anise.

"Why is she coming with us?! Should we even trust her?"

Jade frowned. "Did something happen?"

Tear nodded. "We didn't want to say anything with the Emperor present, but when we were attacked in Theor Forest by the God Generals, Valeria sided with them towards the end."

"I DID NOT side with the God Generals," Valeria hissed. "I sided with Sync, there is a difference!"

Jade put his hand on his forehead, clearly trying to refrain from saying something.

"How is that different?!"

"Because, Anise, I couldn't care less whether Largo lives or dies and I won't actively fight with Sync since he's helping Van. But he is my friend, so I will protect him against those who try to harm him." Valeria grit out. "Now, if you don't trust me, fine, but this is my home country and I will help the people because I care for Peony who wants his people safe. So I'm going, and if you don't like it, figure out some way to deal with it cause this situation is not likely to change."

Jade was looking annoyed with the whole situation. "She is coming with us, and as she said, it's up to you whether you trust her or not. Valeria? We'll need to talk later…"

Yeah, that wasn't going to go over well, she just knew it.

* * *

**For the record? Figuring out how to end a chapter is HARD! Unless it's a cliffhanger, those tend to be easier. So we got to see Lillium again and meet Farrah. Don't worry, both will be back. I have a question I would love an answer to, so far out of my OCs, who do you like the most so far and why? Let me know, I'm curious.**


	25. Chapter 25

**A/N:**

**RK: Okay, so this is a few days late and I apologize! In my defense, I was out of town after dealing with college finals (let me tell you that was a PAIN) and I had an art project I had to finish before going out of town. **

**Anywho, I hope you enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

Due to the nature of their journey to St. Binah, Peony had managed to get them a few carriages to ride in so they could arrive faster, cutting their trip to the town almost in half. And Valeria found it amusing that Jade had decided to ride with her and Nyla in order to get her account of what had happened in Theor Forest.

When she finished telling him, he had sighed but didn't seem to think it wise to comment about the situation. Valeria was beginning to think he finally understood that she actually wouldn't listen to him all the time when he tried to order her around.

It was actually smart of him. Especially since she actually wouldn't go against him or the others unless they tried to start something with her.

Once they got to St. Binah, Jade stopped to talk to his men, who had either been following them or had been ordered to arrive here from other locations, while the rest of the group waited at the entrance to the town. When he finally finished with his update, Jade moved back to where they stood, ready to head inside and talk with McGovern.

The soldiers at the military compound found no reason to stop them so they were let through with ease and apparently they were lucky to arrive in the middle of a conversation between the two McGoverns.

"I told you, Father, with Kaizur overrun; we cannot afford to have troops leave the city."

"But if we don't evacuate the civilians, St. Binah will become the next Akzeriuth!" Field Marshal McGovern told his son.

"We cannot make a move without an order from His Imperial Majesty." Glenn argued.

"If an order from Emperor Peony is what you're waiting for, we just brought it!" Luke told them, leading the way in for the rest of them.

Valeria nudged Nyla, indicating the other side of the table so the two of them could be out of the way until she was needed, which wasn't likely at this point in time.

"Colonel Curtiss?!" McGovern exclaimed, eyes widening. "You're alive!"

"What did His Majesty say?" Elder McGovern asked them.

"We're to evacuate the civilians to the Engeve area."

"But," McGovern argued against Jade. "That will mean leaving the city unguarded..."

"Who cares?! This whole area's started to fall!"

Jade shot Luke a look for his outburst but didn't address him and focused on McGovern. "I have a number of my troops here now, and more will be ready to help take over escorting the civilians partway along the route. Once the civilians are out, please have your remaining forces go west to join General Nordheim's forces on the East Rugnica Plains."

"Understood." McGovern sighed. "So we're abandoning St. Binah..."

The elder of the two McGoverns didn't look entirely too happy with the situation either, but he didn't seem as visibly stressed about it like his son. To Valeria it seemed like he'd known something like this was going to happen since he nodded his consent without a moment's hesitation. "Right, I'll inform the residents."

Valeria held up at hand before he could move away. "Field Marshal? Is there a chance there are some maps of the city we can have access to quickly? It'd be easier for all of us if we can start by designating areas for us all to focus on first to make the evacuation easier."

The elder raised his brows but nodded. "We should have a couple upstairs in the archives."

"I'll get them and bring them out to show the soldiers within the town." Glenn offered, moving towards the door.

"That works," the blonde told them. She looked at Jade. "How many of your troops are you bringing into the town to help?

"About half until we get a significant amount of the townsfolk out. Do you have a plan?"

"Working it out as I go, but I figured we should keep your men towards the beginning of the town since they won't know much of the layout like the soldiers stationed here do. We'll have them focus on areas towards the back of the town and work their way forward while your men work on rounding up those in the town central to move out."

"How about carts?" Luke asked. "You did that back in Akzeriuth, right? To get the injured out of the town faster. We could do that here as well, focusing on the women and children, right?"

"Wow, I hadn't known you'd paid attention to that..." Valeria blinked. "But you're right about that. Since the ground has already begun to shake and fall there are probably some injured people who need to be carted out. That's what this group could focus on," she decided, tapping her chin thoughtfully. "Find as many carts as you can, clear them off if they have product on it since the product can eventually be replaced and begin helping the injured, elderly, woman and children onto them, focusing on the first two before the others. Once that's done, lead them to the soldiers at the front of the town and they will start leading them out."

Natalia, Guy and Tear nodded, heading out first to begin doing just that. Luke hesitated a moment. "Thanks..."

"For what?"

"For agreeing with my idea."

Valeria snorted. "It was a good idea, something I probably would've come up with once Jade and I went to the makeshift soldier command outpost. But since you helped come up with it here I gave the task to you, so you don't have to thank me."

Luke nodded once more and left, leaving the rest of them inside.

"Evacuating the entire population of a town certainly is backbreaking work." Jade commented as they walked outside.

"True, but we were doing this back in Akzeriuth as well." Valeria pointed out.

"We have to make things really clear, or people could seriously panic." Anise added.

Valeria nodded, biting her fingernail as she thought of the things that needed to get done. They arrived at the small command post that had quickly been set up, Glenn having just brought the maps to the table.

Jade leaned over a couple of them to study them while Valeria took in the troops they had in front of them. A number of captains looked around at the higher ranking officers for orders but they all were pretty much focused on Jade, Glenn and her.

"Valeria?"

"Right," the blonde nodded. "I'll need hands raised for my next few questions. Firstly, who here knows the back corners of the town? Those of you who raised your hands, please form on group on the right. Now, who knows the center of the town? You all form a group in the center. And lastly, who knows the layout of the beginning of the town where the shops are? Form a final group on the left."

As each of the groups did this, Valeria leaned down next to Jade to ask him a couple of questions. Once she had his answers, she looked at all the captains and began handing them maps of the town, indicating the sections that they would be in charge of.

"Our main goal is to get out the people as quickly as possible without many disturbances. We already have a group gathering as many carts as they can to help us get out those who'll have issues walking. Right now, we need to begin telling people about the evacuation so they can be ready when we come for them. We can't get everyone out all at once or it'll be a disaster so we'll be forming different groups of citizens to escort out of the city; beginning with the people towards the back, since if the town falls they'll have the hardest time getting out. Once that area is clear we'll move on to other parts of the town. So even though the groups are portioned for each section at the moment we're only doing small bits at a time." Valeria looked at Glenn to see if he had anything else to add.

"Try and make sure we keep things as simple as possible, we don't want anyone to panic. Dismissed!"

The instant the men ran off to begin their tasks Valeria turned back to Jade. "Tell me again why you pretty much had me giving out orders?"

"As I recall, these drills are among the ones that your brother drilled into your head more than any of the others."

Valeria grumbled under her breath. "Fine, but next time speak up more. I'm not an actual member of the military; I should've only been a part of the planning stage, not the commanding stage."

Jade chuckled softly. "And yet you handle yourself better than most captains. Never forget that your brother took the time to make sure you had a commanding presence to deal with situations like this if no one else could."

Valeria sighed. "I still don't like it… Anyway, we need to help out as well. The sooner we get done the better."

Jade nodded in agreement and walked off with a group of soldiers heading towards the back of the city. Valeria knew better than to go that direction, since she'd never been to St. Binah other than for supplies up in the entrance portion of the city. So going back in that direction would make her get lost.

The blonde blinked and looked around.

Where did Nyla go…?

Shaking her head, Valeria knew the Arka wouldn't just run off for no reason. Nyla will be fine, so she needs to focus on helping people get out of the city.

Hopefully it'll end better than Akzeriuth…

* * *

There were a couple of times where Valeria almost lost it when dealing with some of the people and soldiers.

The work by itself was tedious, since getting the citizens out of the town in a timely manner was hard, especially without causing massive panic. But add to the fact that some of the citizens weren't listening and a number of the soldiers were questioning her orders and Valeria was having a hard time keeping her frustration in.

Another reason she wished Jade would've been the one giving the orders instead of her...

In the end the soldiers finally agreed to do what she asked, and the citizens began to calm down once things were explained completely. So all in all things were going okay with only a few pieces that were wrong.

Though Valeria still had no idea where Nyla was...

It was day two of the evacuation and the back portions of the town were already moving towards the town entrance, with a good number of troops beginning to lead the way to Engave with about a third of the population.

Valeria had really only seen the others a couple of times throughout the past day and a half and in all honesty had only gotten a small two hour nap before having to get back up to help the soldiers with the citizens.

At the moment she was outside the town at a base camp the soldiers had set up positions at. The citizens were to meet here when they were gathered from their homes with their families and would then be grouped to be escorted with the correct amount of soldiers.

Luckily, no Kimlascan soldiers had managed to make it this far to make their lives difficult yet but Valeria knew the war was only beginning, so both sides were mostly preparing at the moment.

She could only hope that the preparations on both sides would continue for a while longer so they could get everyone out safely.

Another soldier ran up to the table just them and saluted. "Ma'am! Another update from Captains Ricker and Hasher!"

Valeria stared at the soldier blankly for half a moment, thinking he was talking to someone else. But after a quick glance around and the dawning that he'd used the word 'ma'am' that finally registered in her tired mind she realized he was talking to her. After all, at the moment she was the only female sitting in the circle around the maps.

Why her?

Sighing, she nodded for him to continue.

"We have another two groups of the townsfolk ready to be escorted towards Engave on your orders. They'll be taking two of the healers we have in case anything should happen on the way. We also got a rider from the first group, they've reached the halfway point between the two towns and once they've safely gotten the citizens there half of their numbers will be coming back to assist."

It bothered her that he said it was going to be on her orders. Glenn. Jade and even Elder McGovern all had higher standing that she did, actually, most of the other people sitting at this table did. Ugh... She hadn't gotten nearly enough sleep to deal with that annoying train of thought. "Good, they can head out when ready. Anyone have any idea where Colonel Curtiss is?"

She had a bone to pick with him.

One of the men surrounding the maps raised an eyebrow. "He's in the tent set aside for Captains, he walked in there last night after you went to pass out."

Valeria blinked. She honestly hadn't noticed anyone else in the tent, having figured that she needed to get back out here to help with anything else that was behind schedule.

Though in all honesty, they were actually ahead of schedule because the soldiers were quick to solve problems if the citizens explained what they needed and vice versa.

Standing from her chair, Valeria walked into the tent that Jade was supposedly in and sure enough, he was lying on his side sleeping under a blanket. As were Guy and Tear.

Since she wasn't sure when they'd gotten to sleep, Valeria figured she should just leave them be and decided to actually make an attempt to find the others...

...by asking the soldiers.

She was directed to a different tent and she peeked in to see that the rest of the group was inside... All except Luke...

"Final question," Valeria told those around the maps, walking back over for a final time. "Have you seen an idiot red head that is probably over working himself?"

A few of the men chuckled at her description but apparently one of them actually knew where Luke was, pointing into the town behind them. "I believe I saw him last night near the inn, he'd worked himself hard and had managed to fall asleep on an empty cart."

"Thanks, I'll go make sure he hasn't died yet."

Before leaving, she thought about asking about Nyla, but decided against it. Her best friend would come back when she was ready and was likely helping out in her own way, she was resourceful like that.

Heading inside the town, Valeria turned towards the inn and made her way over. She blinked when she saw the innkeeper standing outside staring at the rising sun. She'd dealt with him before when she'd come to the city for supplies, he'd given her a single room that was still large enough for Nyla to sprawl out in.

He noticed her looking and waived her over. "Hey, are you friends with the red head who passed out on the cart last night?"

Valeria smirked. "I guess you can say that, any idea where he's at?"

She'd noticed that of the two carts within eyesight, no one was in either of them.

"Two of the guys helped him into my inn last night; kid was so tired he only complained once." The innkeeper told her, turning on his heel and motioning her to follow.

He led her into one of the first rooms available to stay in and gestured to Luke. The red head was curled up around a pillow, drool dripping from his mouth and short hair stuck up at odd angles.

It actually looked kinda cute.

And immensely similar to one of the times she'd seen Asch curled up on his side when they'd been stranded during a storm…

Shaking her head, Valeria moved over to Luke and poked at his side. "Hey Luke…" another poke "Luuuuke…"

He made a grumbling noise and turned over, making Valeria fight between a smile and a sigh. Poking him for a final time and attempting a gentle shove gave her no different results. Rolling her eyes, Valeria gripped the sheets that lay beneath him and gave a big tug, effectively pulling the sheets out from under him and sending Luke sprawling to the floor face first.

His immediate reaction, which Valeria mentally applauded, was to jump up and get on the defensive. However since he actually didn't have his sword strapped to him the effort was wasted and his eyes also widened when they landed on her.

Valeria eyed Luke with a smirk. "I hear you overworked yourself yesterday; on one hand I want to applaud you for working so hard. But on the other, if you overwork yourself and get injured because of this then you're of no use to anyone."

Luke looked down at her words, making her sigh and run her hand through her bangs. "I'm not trying to make you feel bad, I'm only explaining that you need to be careful and rest or take a break if you get tired. We still have a long way to go."

Luke nodded and looked over at the innkeeper still by the door. "Oh hey! Thanks for letting me stay here, sorry if I was any trouble."

Is it weird that Valeria still finds it odd that he apologizes?

The man nodded. "I remember seeing you running around yesterday, you definitely needed the rest. Keep up the good work, and as the lady said, don't overdo it."

He pulled out a small bag from behind his back and held it out to them. Valeria took it and opened it to see two small breakfast sandwiches. The innkeeper smiled as he scratched his head. "The wife always makes too much food and she wanted to use up the stuff that can't be brought along, so feel free to eat up."

"Thank you, we'll come back to help you and your wife when it's time for you all to evacuate," Valeria told him, steering Luke out of the inn and heading further into town.

She handed one of the sandwiches to Luke and opened the second, grimacing when she noticed it was covered in a bunch of grease from the meat. Before Luke could open his, she handed hers to him. He looked like he wanted to argue but then realize why she'd handed it over and didn't argue.

"Thanks," Luke told her after they'd walked in silence for a bit.

"Pretty sure I haven't done anything warranting thanks." Valeria commented, taking a bite of the banana she'd pulled from a bag.

"Just... You've been treating me nicer than some of the others." He held up his hands quickly. "Not that I don't understand why they're treating me that way. I just... It feels nice when people don't treat me too differently."

Valeria stopped walking suddenly and turned to face Luke. "I'm not treating you nicer than normal, I'm treating you how I treat anyone who isn't family." She sighed, running a hand along her face. "I'll make this as clear as I can: everyone makes mistakes."

She paused to let that sink in for a moment. "I will admit that some make more than others but it's what we do once we make those mistakes that make us who we are. It's not fair to always keep lording a situation over a person, there's really no point since it'll just make you bitter."

Valeria took another bite of her banana, tilting her head. "So no, I'm not going to treat you like the others are treating you, and besides, I never trusted any of you other than Jade to begin with, so it's not like you need to regain my trust. Just do the best you can to help out."

"You probably meant to give me a stern lecture or something, but that honestly did make me feel better," Luke chuckled.

"Let me put it to you this way: you're here, walking next to me and looking over what's going on in this town. You've also been following the orders I've been giving since the moment we began evacuating this place," Valeria pointed out. "Yet I stood against all of you in Theor Forest when Sync was involved. So answer me this, why are you okay with me now as opposed to then? Why follow my orders at all?"

"Well... " Luke blinked, as if he'd forgotten about that. "Jade trusts you, so there's that. Also... You've helped us a lot in the past, so I guess I can't judge you badly because of one time stood against us..." Luke trailed off, eyes widening on what he just said.

Valeria nodded. "I've learned to give some people, though not all, the benefit of the doubt. Had you not decided to change, and the change was evident when I first saw you again back in Daath and I don't just mean your hair, I would've written you off. But you clearly want to do better, case in point what you've done in the town yesterday. So as long as you try and do better, I won't hold things against you."

Luke ran a hand through his hair, a sheepish look on his face.

"Also, if you think Jade trusts me, you're fooling yourself," she told him. "In all honestly, I don't think he actually trusts anyone completely. Though I suppose he has to trust some a little bit or else nothing would get done."

Luke laughed at that. "So what did you come looking for me for?"

"The other are still asleep, but I wanted to do a quick sweep through the town just to see what else needs to be done. Since I wasn't entirely sure where you were at, I figured I should hunt you down." Valeria explained, tossing her banana peel into a trash bin nearby. "So now you can either come with me, or head outside of town to our little encampment and see what's going on there."

Luke thought about it for a moment. "I'll come along with you in case you need help with anything."

Valeria nodded and the two of them set off to wander around the deserted streets of the town. Only twice were they actually asked to help out by a few citizens but most of the people who were still in the town were waiting inside their homes to be fetched for their time to evacuate.

They arrived back at the outpost after some time to find the rest of their group up and eating breakfast. Jade and Guy looked at the two of them, a little surprised to see them.

"How long have you two been up?"

"I've been up for about four hours; I found Luke two hours or so ago and we walked around the twon to prep a couple of things," Valeria explained to Guy. She then looked at Jade. "I also gave permission for the second group of citizens to be taken from here to Engave; they should've left by now."

"They just finished pulling out when I woke up an hour ago," Jade told her.

"So all that's left is to prepare for the last mass group, shall we start?"

The others all agreed and quickly finished their food before pairing up with some soldiers again to start going out and collecting citizens.

Halfway through the day, with more than half of the remaining people gathered outside the town while the rest were being grouped in the town square, Valeria looked up sharply. She wasn't sure what it was, but there was an odd noise in the air.

Looking around through the sky, she noticed something coming in from the distance and sighed.

"Hey, Luke?"

The red head, who had volunteered to be paired with her group today, looked over at her. "Yeah?"

"Please run and get Jade, we're about to have company..."

He gave her a questioning look but seemed to think better of asking her what she meant and rushed off to do as she asked. Not even a few minutes later she heard laughter coming from the sky as a floating chair came into view.

"Aah hah hah hah hah hah! I've finally found—" Dist stopped suddenly and looked around confused. "Huh…?"

Valeria hung her head, Dist really was idiotic. "Dist, what are you doing here?"

The lilac haired man blinked at her stupidly for a few moments. "I could've sworn Jade was here..."

"He is," Valeria supplied helpfully. "But he's busy at the moment, can I take a message?"

"Don't get smart with me Valeria! Where is the Fon Master!?"

"And here I thought you were looking for Jade, tsk tsk Dist, make up your mind."

Dist glared at her. "Valeria!"

"Dist!" She retorted, smirking. She then dropped the banter and got serious. "Why are you working with Aeron?"

Dist recoiled, slamming against the back of his chair at the venom in her tone. "Aeron? That poison wielding manic? Some other guy brought him in; I had nothing to do with it."

Valeria scowled. "Some other guy?"

"Yes! Van came back to the Order one day with Aeron and another man and told the rest of us that he was forming another section of the Order off the books to deal with unusual situations."

Valeria ground her teeth at that, though she really shouldn't be surprised. She opened her mouth to ask more but before she could, Luke was running back over with Jade and Tear by his side.

Jade looked up at Dist with an annoyed look. "Dist, you never were able to tell when you're not wanted."

"Say what you like! I'm taking Fon Master Ion!"

"I'm afraid not." Jade informed him. "Now move."

"Are you trying to save these worms? And after you gave up on Professor Nebilim!"

"...Are you still pursuing that foolishness?!"

"You have no right to criticize me! You gave up before you even started! Now, hand over the Fon Master!"

Valeria faced palmed once more, these two always go off in their own world when Dist gets like this. It almost seemed like they, or at least Dist, had forgotten that the rest of them were there.

And unluckily for them, Dist had decided to come more prepared than they'd thought, since in the next moment a robot came falling from the sky. It landed with a huge thud on the ground that had Valeria cringing when a crumbling sound was heard moments later.

Whirling around, Valeria locked eyes with the Captain of her group. "We'll handle this, make a large berth in the area and get the remaining citizens out ASAP!"

The captain nodded and began barking orders to the other soldiers there and the citizens who were around began to dash out of the way. Within moments the square center was empty of everyone except their group and Dist, who had entered the robot and booted it up.

Valeria flicked her eyes to the edge of the area and hoped that the people who were being quickly escorted would be out of the line of fire soon.

Tear and Jade both slipped into a casting stance while Luke pulled out his sword, running at the machine right as Dist gets it to rise up at them.

Luke, having fought against Dist's robots before, immediately knew to side step the incoming strike from the thing's arm, lunging forward to slice at the wires that were hanging outside the machine. Though Dist appeared to have gotten smarted with this incarnation of the Kaiser Dist, seeing as the slicing of the wires appeared to do nothing to hinder the robot.

It did, however, allow for Tear and Jade to both finish casting, the melodist calling forth an arte Valeria had never seen before.

"Éclair de Larmes!" She called out, bolts of light forming above the robot and turning to strike the center of the machine, piecing a couple layers of the machine as Jade's arte finished as well, the Flame Burst coating the freed wires in flames before the machine's natural defenses put the flames out.

The moment the flames were out, Luke was there again, slicing at the wires until the machine threw the swordsman off. As Luke tried to get up, the machine was on him, firing a beam of energy heading towards the downed swordsman.

Valeria, finishing up with helping the soldiers move the other citizens, lunged from her position on the side lines, knocking into Luke to push him out of the way.

Rolling to her side, she hissed in pain and clutched her arm where the tail edge of the energy beam managed to singe her right below the shoulder.

Luke moved to check her but she shoved him the other way, towards the robot and rolled out of the way once more.

Luke realized what she wanted and nodded, going after the robot to distract it so that it was led away from her. Once it was far enough away Tear was by her side, casting the arte to heal the injury.

Jade made his way over while Luke continued to keep Dist away, "You know you're going to have to make an effort in this, right? Use stronger artes, this really shouldn't be drawn out much longer."

Valeria caught his unsaid meaning and sighed. She understood where he was coming from so she nodded and dropped into a casting stance. As she gathered the fourth fonons Valeria noticed that they seemed to be pulsing in the air. It was almost as if they were waiting for something to happen, a change to occur.

What exactly…?

Shaking her head, Valeria flicked her hand out, drawing fonons into the palm of her hand, clenching her fist once they gathered. "This I summon, icy breath cover my enemies to sleep forever within my hateful ice."

Flinging her hand at the robot, Valeria felt the fonons bunch together, a lot more fonons than usual, as they raced along the surface of the robot. "Frigid Coffin!"

Luke quickly ducked out of the way, clutching his arm from a wound he hadn't been able to avoid getting. Once out of the way, it allowed the full force of the arte to hit the robot as Jade followed up with an arte she hadn't seen from him in a long time.

"Ground Dasher!"

Both artes did excessive amounts of damage to the machine and right as her arte faded, Valeria realized the two bunches of fonons had tried to combine together. Had Jade released his arte sooner, a new arte might've been formed.

She filed that information away for later.

The two artes, along with the amount of damage Luke had done to the wiring, had the machine making weird noises. It made one final jump at them, that all of them managed to dodge. Right as it landed, Tear let another Éclair de Larnes off and it hit the machine dead center.

It stumbled and crashed down to the ground with a huge jolt. The jolt sent the fonons in the air into a frenzy, Valeria flinched at the feeling and noticed that the fourth fonons just disappeared. The ground began shaking as Dist got free of his destroyed machine, yelling words at them that Valeria wasn't paying attention too.

Her focus was on the ground around them, but mostly in front of them.

She wasn't sure where the others were, but she knew that the evacuation was still going on. Finally, the ground gave one more final large shake before the crumbling began. Valeria cried out as she fell, knocking into Tear. The two of them quickly moved to get up, rushing after Jade with Luke towards where the ground was beginning to fall.

They reached the edge of the ground right as it broke off; jumping to the safe part of the ground before it fully came apart.

Valeria stood up and turned, looking back and scowling. There in the center of the square was a large group of citizens, along with the Field Marshall.

"Damn it Dist!" Valeria hissed.

Luke seemed to realize she'd paid attention to something since he came over. "Damn it, McGovern and the others are…!"

"Luke wait! I'll jump down and sing a fonic hymn!"

"Wait. A considerable number of residents still remain," Jade interrupted. "You can't protect them all with your hymn. Let's thing of a more definite plan."

Valeria sighed, rubbing her fingers along her forehead. She was trying to think of something when she felt someone grab her arm. She whirled around to yell at them when she realized it was Jade.

"Valeria, where is Nyla?"

That was a thought that she wasn't really wanting to contemplate. She hadn't seen her best friend since yesterday and the fact that she didn't know whether Nyla was down below or not worried her.

Sounds from behind them had everyone turning as Guy and a few soldiers ran over.

"You're all okay!" Guy exclaimed, relief on his face.

"Not everyone…" Luke muttered, looking down at the people still on the falling land.

"If only we had a way to reach them," Tear muttered.

"A way to reach them…" Guy mused, "hey, I heard they were doing flight experiments in Sheridan."

"Flight experiments? What's that?" Luke asked.

"If I recall, they have an ancient hover drive that was excavated by the Order. Supposedly back in Yulia's age, they attached those to vehicles and flew in them. All the fon machine buffs have been talking about it." Guy explained.

Valeria grinned. "Oh yeah, there are experiments under way. From what I've been told, since I love keeping track of these things, they already finished a machine and should be testing it soon. I've been contemplating ditching town to go and see that before I got involved in this."

"That's perfect! Let's go borrow whatever they're using for the experiments! If we hurry, maybe we can save the people!"

"Will we be in time?" Jade brought up, stopping Luke's excitement. "The situation looks different than Akzeriuth, but even still..."

"From what I heard from Van, it took several days for Hod to fall." Tear informed them. "There's a force field called the 'dividing line' between the Qliphoth and the Outer Lands. He said they fell faster just after crossing that line."

"So we have some time before things get too bad, good to know," Valeria mused. She then looked over at Guy and the other soldiers. "Any chance you've seen my Arka?"

Guy blinked then nodded. "Yeah, she just got back from helping to escort a batch of citizens. She apparently was helping to pull one of the carts until they could find a horse to take over."

Valeria breathed a sigh of relief. "Okay, then let's go and gather the others and make our way to Sheridan."

* * *

**Fun Fact: I originally had planned a different ending for this chapter to showcase the move that Nyla had developed back a few chapters during the Sword Dancer fight. But instead I altered the move a bit and had her use it during that fight instead. It seemed to work better there anyway, so that's what matters, right?**


	26. Chapter 26

**A/N:**

**RK: I'm actually really surprised i got this chapter done when I did. Especially considering I managed to somehow injure my dominant typing finger and it was in a splint for a good few days. But I digress. **

**Here's the new chapter, read it and enjoy!**

* * *

Valeria stretched as she walked down the port hatch down to the ground below. She honestly had no idea how they'd managed to make it so quickly to Sheridan Port, but time was and still is of the essence so Jade had given her permission to alter a couple of things in the Tartarus's system so that they could make better time. So, a day earlier than they'd thought, their group was leaving the landship to head towards the crafting town.

"Sheridan handles ship construction for the entire Outer Lands, doesn't it?"

"Yes, exactly!" Guy answered Tear. "Sheridan is technically part of Kimlasca, but experienced craftsmen from all over the world live there."

"The craftsmen spend a lot of time passing on their craft as well," Valeria commented, smiling at a memory she had of a particular craftsman who helped her out before. "A good chunk of those here in this town love it when someone shows interest in the craft and will even mentor others."

"And you know how there's a huge canyon around Sheridan? The dry rocks from there are invaluable for building fon machines, especially weapons."

"Oh! And the wind power from the surrounding area is a new way to help power some parts of the town," Valeria added on to Guy's comment about the geography. The blond looked at her with eyebrows raised. "Oh come on, you had to have known that! It's one of the best things about the town, how they keep creating new ways to get different types of power!"

Guy nodded. "I'd heard something about that, but didn't know they'd implemented it."

"It's amazing! I talked with one of the people in charge of that and he gave me the lowdown in it, I'll tell you about it sometime."

"Thanks!" He turned back to the others, "Sheridan is pretty close to Daath, which allows them to be able to sell battleships and landships to Malkuth as well, so—"

"Arrgh!" Luke cut in. "Shut up already!"

Valeria and Guy both fell silent at the red head's outburst. The fonist noticed the others were looking rather annoyed as well and had to stifle a laugh.

"…Stay away from me." Anise ordered.

"Their obsession with fon machines is… incredible…" Natalia breathed, an odd look on her face.

"Or maniacal." Jade smirked.

"Well sorry!" Guy muttered dejectedly.

Valeria laughed. "I'm not, it's too much fun."

The group pushed past the two of them, leaving Valeria and Guy standing at the port entrance for a moment until Nyla brushed past them, knocking them over.

Valeria stood up from that in surprise, noticing the Arka flicked her tail back at them. Since when was Nyla that playful towards others?

It made Valeria take a better look at Guy, who was standing up now as well. "Did you bribe my Arka?"

"W-what?" He sputtered.

"She seems to be awfully nice to you recently. On our way over here I noticed her curled closer to your terminal than mine and she just playfully knocked both of us over instead of just me."

Guy shook his head, walking to catch up with the rest of the group.

"You're not discounting either of those facts, you know. Which, makes me believe even more now that you bribed her somehow…"

"The first day when we were in St Binah, right after we met with McGovern and the others, I noticed Nyla sneaking off towards the back of town and I followed her." Guy looked ahead at Nyla, the Arka pacing on the outside of the group, keeping her gaze out on the surrounding area. He sighed. "I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but her leading the way to a group of dogs wasn't it. The dogs were obviously strays but there were two females there who looked to belong to someone, and they'd just given birth to some puppies. I think Nyla had sensed that and wanted to help out or something."

Valeria nodded, not surprised in the least that Nyla would do something like that.

"She'd realized I followed her and got defensive until I left; I then came back with a cart after I piled some blankets in it that I'd taken from a stall. I helped the mothers and her puppies into the small cart and the rest of the strays just piled in, getting protective of them. From there I dragged the cart up to the town square and gave it to one of the soldiers who promised me that they'd take care of the animals. And right then one of the owners managed to stumble by as well, and they also agreed to help all of them. Nyla had stayed with me the entire time and when it was just the two of us, she bumped me and then ran off."

Valeria smirked. "Do you have a soft spot for animals or something, Guy?"

The blond hunched down, embarrassed. "I… guess…"

Valeria laughed softly. "Anything else happen?"

"Well, she came in around the time I was eating dinner and I gave her the rest of my meat so she wouldn't have to go hunting, but that was it."

"Huh, so food and understanding… The best way to get an Arka to like you," Valeria smirked. "I'll not have you stealing my best friend from me."

"I wouldn't!"

Valeria laughed as she ran to catch up with Nyla, running her fingers along the Arka's torn ear the moment she caught up. "You're my best friend, no leaving for the other blond, ya hear?"

The Arka head-butted her, growling softly.

* * *

Sheridan was just as Valeria remembered. There were all sorts of craftsmen around and the fon techie within her wanted to run around, talking with a lot of them. Though she did have self-control, so instead of doing just that, she told the others to follow her towards where she knew the flight projects were supposedly being worked on.

And since none of the others had been here before, or if they had they hadn't made friends with the mechanics here, they left it up to her and Nyla to lead the way.

Though she did make a mental note to head back and check up on a weapon smith buddy of hers before they left.

Like usual, any crowd that was in the way parted when Valeria, riding Nyla, came walking by. It always made Valeria smirk, and it was a good perk to have the Arka around when she didn't want to deal with people.

Finally, after walking into the warehouse portion of the town, they happened upon a small group of elderly people looking rather flustered. Valeria had Nyla slow down just a bit so they could slowly come up on them and not freak them out. One of them was bald with side burns, another had one small patch of blond hair on him with long eyebrows covering his eyes and the only female of the group was wielding a ruler, occasionally smacking it in her palms.

"Well? Well!? What's happening?!" The blond asked.

"I can see it plain as day! The gusts over the Meggiora are going to blow it off any minute." The other male responded.

"Oh, come on, Aston. Are you sure you're not going blind, old man?" The female argued.

"You know you only get farsighted with age, Tamara. I can see far away just fine." Aston responded.

"This is bad; we might lose the hover drive." The blond broke in.

"How can you talk like that, Iemon?! That's your grandson, Ginji trapped in there! Aren't you worried about him!?

Valeria looked over at Jade, not sure what to do. She hadn't ever actually met the mechanics in charge of the flight project, she just knew who they were; and since these older folks were talking about the hover drive, she was sure these were them. But now it was out of her hands and up to Jade or whoever to get this moving.

And it seemed like Luke wanted to fill that slot.

"Is something wrong?"

The blond, Iemon, looked over at them. "… The Albiore crashed in the Meggiora Highlands."

"The Albiore? You mean the machine equipped with the ancient hover drive?"

"Oh, no." Anise cried out in response to Guy's question. "Did we come all the way here for nothing?"

"No, I heard two hover drives had been excavated…"

Valeria sighed, palm resting on her forehead. "That doesn't mean a thing though, most of the mechanics here focus on one huge project at a time before starting another huge project. Sure, they tend to do smaller projects as well, but it's better to focus on one large project at a time. And I'm pretty sure one flying machine with the hover drive is considered a huge project, let alone two."

"The little lady is correct; the second hover drive hasn't been so much as started up yet."

"Iemon, there's no time to chat. We have to form a rescue party for Ginji and the hover drive!"

"Right," Iemon agreed with Aston. "We can attach the hover drive to the Albiore II and resume experiments."

"You're a heartless old man!" The lady growled at him, following the men as they walked past their group.

Valeria sighed again, this time choosing the lay down on Nyla as the others talked around her.

"The Meggiora Highlands are teeming with monsters," Jade brought up, putting a hand to his head. "The rescue team may need rescuing themselves…"

"But from what they've said, we can't fly without the hover drive." Tear brought up what they all were thinking.

Luke chewed on his lip. "Let's at least ask whether or not we can borrow the hover drive."

"Yes," Natalia agreed, "we should probably ask the one they called Iemon."

Ion stepped forward. "I think it may help smooth things along if I'm the one who speaks with them. Let's go."

Valeria nodded. "That group was class I, they're the top mechanics in this town, so since they're not here, they'll be in the town hall. I'll lead you there, but I have to go run an errand real quick. Make sure you all don't leave without me, got it?"

The others agreed and the two of them led the rest of them to the hall, waiving at them before they went to another part of town.

After walking for some time, Nyla grumbled under her breath and stopped suddenly, turning to look over at a different street. Valeria looked over as well right as Noir came around the corner, York and Urushi behind her.

"Noir?!"

The thief looked at the two of them in surprise. "Valeria, Nyla?!"

The three thieves quickly came over to them, the female pulling Valeria from Nyla to hug her. "Please let me go…"

Noir did, after one more squeeze and looked the two of them over. "I know I heard about it from Drayden, but I'm still happy to see you for my own eyes. The boys and I were really worried that you and the pooch didn't make it."

Valeria laughed. "We're too hard to kill!"

Urushi nodded. "That is true."

"Well little lady, what are you doing here?"

"Here as in this walkway, or here as in this town?" Valeria asked York.

He chuckled. "How about both?"

"I'm going this way to see a weapon smith friend of mine, the town, however, is because Jade's group wants to borrow the hover drive from Class I."

"The hover drive in that flying contraption crashed in the Meggiora?"

"Yep," Valeria answered Noir, "that's the one. Not sure how they plan on doing this, but we'll see."

"Noir," they all looked at York. "I'm going to escort her to her weapon smith, that alright with you?"

The Dark Wings leader nodded. "That's fine, just catch up soon."

Noir and Urushi walked off, leaving York with Valeria and Nyla. Like many times before, York bowed before her, gesturing for her to lead the way. They walked side by side, the male occasionally asking her some questions.

She knew he was fishing for her next plans, likely cause he, Noir and Urushi wanted to keep track of her, but she didn't know what her group were doing next after helping St. Binah. In fact, her only plan was to keep moving so that she doesn't have to deal with Aeron, or worse.

A couple minutes of lapsed, comfortable, silence fell between them as they walked onward until they reached Valeria's destination. She turned to York and bowed at him. "Thank you for the escort, it's nice to have someone who understands walk nearby. I'll try and keep you guys updated, if you promise to do the same. And if you go back to helping Asch, don't get dragged into anything stupid, you hear?"

York laughed softly at her but bowed nonetheless and sauntered away, allowing Valeria to go inside the workshop with Nyla trailing closely behind. Though the moment she entered through the door, the Arka moved past Valeria quickly to go into a back room, to the surprise of the patrons inside.

"Ah! Valeria! The old man is in the back with Gita, he'll be happy to see you!"

Valeria smiled at Shon, working the front desk, and waived at him, following Nyla on back. Sure enough, Nyla was curled up on a large animal bed with the wolf hybrid, the two canines catching up for the moment.

"One of these days, I think she's going to leave me for Gita…" Valeria muttered to the silver haired man standing in front of the forge.

He whirled around, arms wide with a grin on his face. "Yellow Bird! Goodness it's been some time! Get over here you!"

Valeria grinned, bolting over to the older man and letting him envelop her in a hug. His arms wrapped around her middle and, even though he was an old man, he lifted her in the air and whirled her around. Even she wasn't sure why this didn't bother her, since normally even the thought of a male hugging her would send her sprawling to the ground. But old man Haus treated her like a granddaughter from the first moment he saw her the first time she visited Sheridan. So she didn't really see him as anything other than a protective grandfather.

The moment he released her, Valeria was digging in her bag. "I found one of the best items for you to try and craft with!"

Haus looked over at the canines. "She's obviously using me for my crafting skills, what do you think?"

Gita raised his head and huffed at his owner while Nyla didn't even bother responding to that. Valeria rolled her eyes and extracted the ore from her bag. The moment his eyes landed on the ore, Haus stopped talking and stared at it in surprise.

"Th-that's Libavius ore! Do you have any idea how rare that is!?"

Valeria snorted. "Duh, and you won't believe what we went through to get it, Nyla and I. So I want you to take this ore and create the best thing you can ever make!"

"Yellow Bird…" Haus looked teary. "I… don't know what to say…"

"Nothing needs to be said; I just wanted to give that as thanks for all the stuff you've helped me with. Mess around all you like, I don't want anything in return, you hear?"

Haus picked her up and twirled her around again, once again making Valeria wonder how the old man managed to twirl her around like he was thirty years younger.

"Hey, Nyla and I have to go, but you have fun with that ore!"

* * *

Bribery.

She had to result to bribery to get the Arka away from the wolf hybrid, a whole handful of snacks and even then, the pooch wasn't thrilled about having to leave her friend.

Currently, the two were waiting at the entrance of town for the group. She wasn't sure what the situation was, but since they were on a strict timeline, she'd made sure not to waste time seeing old man Haus.

Even though she enjoyed watching him work.

She looked over as the other rounded the corner to head out of town. They saw the two of them and came to a stop a few feet in front of them.

"So, what's the plan?" Valeria asked them.

Everyone looked at Guy, who hung his head. "Me again?"

The silence stretched for a moment before he sighed. "Class I is going to allow us to use the Albiore II if we go rescue Ginji and the hover drive from the Meggiora. They gave us a launcher to help get the Albiore safely to the ground."

Valeria nodded. "Got it, I've been in the Highlands before looking for ore, it's past the port. We should probably hurry."

The others agreed and allowed her to once more lead the way. It took them a couple of tense hours before they reached the point where they could actually enter the Highlands and the moment they entered the realized just how precarious the situation was.

The Albiore was stuck on a narrow ledge and the winds kept teetering it closer and closer to the edge where it could fall and kill the pilot.

"We have to hit both sides of the Albiore so we can lower it safely," Guy told them, pulling out the launcher that had been supplied to them.

Valeria took one quick look at the group. "Luke, Guy, Jade and Tear take the left. Nyla and I will go with Anise and Natalia to go right. It'll split the group is half with a healer in both teams."

"Are you sure? That'll give our group two sword users."

"We'll be fine, Jade. Nyla and I can handle the close-up encounters when Anise is casting or she can be up close when I'm casting." Valeria assured. "Enough arguing, we need to hurry or we'll be in trouble if the Albiore falls."

Even Jade couldn't argue with that and the two groups split off to take their sides.

It was tough going for Valeria's group; it seemed that all sorts of monsters were running at them. Although she'd noticed that a couple of the monsters were more intent on getting past them, rather than attacking them.

And for some reason, that bothered her.

And Nyla as well. The Arka was occasionally glancing around and whining, something she hadn't heard the canine do in quite some time.

"I have a bad feeling about this..."

"What?" Anise asked.

"Have you noticed anything odd?"

"Other than you and the pooch? No."

"I have... The monsters..." Natalia muttered softly.

"Exactly."

"What?" Anise asked.

"They've been running away from this area..." Natalia told the girl quietly.

Suddenly Nyla crouched down with a loud growl, the noise startling them all to look at the direction she was staring at. Moments later, they each heard and felt large footsteps coming from that direction.

From around the corner a large red and black striped grey reptilian creature stepped into view, fangs gleaming in its jaws and horns all along its head. It moved on two feet and had a long spiked tail trailing behind it.

Valeria paled, she knew that creature, remembering it from a book she'd read ages ago. A book on ancient extinct Dawn Age creatures.

"Guys... That's a Blade Rex..."

* * *

**A couple of plot bunnies made some of the things in this chapter happen, so thank them for the middle chunk...**

**Also, Guy has received a new title _"Future Fur-friend"_!**


	27. Chapter 27

**A/N:**

**RK: So I really want to say thank you to everyone who's been reading and especially those who review. Any time I see a new review it makes me very happy and also gives me a big boost of confidence! Sometimes I worry that my writing isn't up to snuff now that Mara can't help much anymore and it bothers me immensely, so seeing that people like the story enough to review it always brings a smile to my face!**

**Anywho, cliff hanger from the last time, time to fight the Blade Rex! Hope you enjoy it and I hope to have the next chapter ready sooner than usual.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

The Blade Rex roared, the sound sending chills down Valeria's spine as she got out some of her knives. At her side, she noticed Natalia readying her bow and Anise had already made Tokunaga enlarge. She almost wished she would've kept Guy with them, just to have another attacker, but then thought better of it. The hide on the Blade Rex was thick, so even with a sword user; this fight was going to be a problem.

And the thing was in the way of the direction they needed to take in order to reach the Albiore.

"Are we going to have to fight that thing?" Anise asked quietly.

"Sadly, yes. We have to go that way, and I don't think it'll let us go by even if we ask nicely." Valeria murmured back.

"Hey Valeria, since you know what that is, know any weaknesses?" Natalia asked, eyeing the creature as it slowly made its way closer to them.

"Uhhh..." Valeria wracked her brain, trying to remember more about what she'd read. "I think fifth fonons, definitely don't use second though, it'll make it stronger. At least, I think that's what the book said..."

The two girls nodded slowly right as the Blade Rex seemed to make its decision, charging at them. Nyla jumped into action, intercepting the reptilian creature with the new arte she'd used against the Sword Dancer. The glow surrounded the Arka and when she rammed into the Blade Rex Valeria felt a strong bust of air as the creature went sailing into the rocky wall.

Everyone stared at Nyla for a moment in shock before Valeria burst out laughing. "That's my girl! Good job!"

They quickly calmed down in the next moment when the Blade Rex stood again, roaring louder than before.

"I think she just made it mad…" Anise muttered, falling into a casting stance.

Valeria couldn't agree more, grabbing her poison laced knives in the hope they'll do some form of damage. She ran forward, ducking under the lunge the creature made for her and whirled around to swipe at its underbelly.

The knives slide against it hide, doing next to no damage against the creature as it let its body drop down on her in a body slam. At the last second, Nyla bolted underneath and grabbed Valeria before it could truly collapse on her.

Thanking the Arka, Valeria got into her casting stance as Anise's Negative Gate went off on the creature. The effect of the arte wasn't what they were expecting.

The Blade Rex seemed to absorb the attack, roaring at them and rushing towards Anise.

Valeria felt the barrier arte from Natalia and silently thanked the archer as she continued with her arte, trusting Nyla to get the creature off Anise's back.

"So I don't think first fonons will work on it!" Anise called out, running out of the way. "It just absorbed them!"

Nyla distracted the thing, making it turn around suddenly to try and bite the canine as she raced around the field.

"If it absorbed first fonons, try using sixth!" Valeria ordered.

Finished casting, Valeria let off a Blessed Drops before rushing in again, Nyla covering her. In sync with one another, Nyla tossed the blonde up into the air in a move similar to the one they'd used near Belkend, which allowed her to land on the creature's back. Once on the thing's back, Valeria grew shocked and uneasy once she noticed all the swords stuck into the creature's back.

Just how many people have tried to kill this thing before and failed?

And would they be luckier than the others?"

Shaking her head, Valeria quickly grabbed one of the swords still stuck in the creature's back just in time to keep from being knocked off as it bucked up. Nyla circled the Rex then, distracting it for a moment while Valeria moved up its back towards the neck, hand closing on a different sword that was stuck there.

The moment her hand closed on the blade she felt a sudden jolt coming from the blade and hissed in surprise though she knew better and didn't release the blade in her shock. Instead, she grabbed the handle with both hands and pulled.

It took a moment before the sword actually started to move but she managed to get it out of the creature.

Only to swiftly strike down right where she'd pulled it out.

The Blade Rex roared in pain and bucked once more. This time though, since the sword had been dislodged moments earlier, Valeria was thrown from the back of the reptile and crashed into the side of the rocky wall.

She crumpled down to the ground with a moan of pain, managing to get up carefully after a few moments of disorientation. She still had the sword clutched in her hand and noticed the thing was pulsing oddly.

Was that why it had actually damaged the Rex?

She honestly didn't know and she couldn't focus on that since the Rex was charging right towards her again.

Nyla once again rammed it with her arte but the Rex had braced itself at the last moment and instead of getting thrown into the wall again, it just absorbed the impact and whirled around, tail hitting Nyla square in the side and sending the Arka right into Anise atop Tokunaga, the pair rolling along the ground.

The Blade Rex went after the downed pair until Natalia shot a Gallant Barrage towards the creature, effectively distracting it so Nyla and Anise could recover.

Though it made the archer the direct target for the Rex's arte; the Fire Shot hitting Natalia before she could get out of the way.

Valeria gritted her teeth, falling into a casting stance once more while it was still distracted.

This arte was one she hadn't used in battle before, but she had the theory down completely and had practiced a couple of times while on the Tartarus surrounded by water. And even though this place was an abundance of second … and first? There was still a surprising amount of fourth fonons in the air that made it easier for her to cast her artes.

"O soothing waters of energy, rise up at my call to douse my foe... Marvelous Fountain!"

The arte formed correctly, something Valeria hadn't been sure would happen in the midst of battle. Water began to pool underneath the Rex, gaining volume until the reptile was practically struggling to keep upright from the force of the water. Once enough was formed, the water shot upward into the air, sending the Rex into the air to crash back down to the ground painfully.

The water, still rising in the air, began to glow a blue color before spreading out along the battlefield to fall down upon the group as well as the Rex, healing everyone while hitting the reptile with painful bursts.

Natalia went off to the side, to add on to the healing effect by casting barrier on everyone once more, the arte having dissipated a couple of minutes ago. Nyla was the next one who went into action, once more gathering the fonons for her ramming arte.

The arte hit the downed Rex, managing to inflict more damage before it could recover.

This, however, seemed to make the Rex even angrier.

It rose to its feet with a roar, whirling around and striking Valeria, the knife user having moved forward to strike with the sword she'd taken from its back, as well as Nyla and Anise. The tail attack hit all three of them, the barbed spike at the end slicing into each of them.

Nyla growled, attempting to get back up but was unable to while Anise let off a couple of dual punishments at the reptile.

Natalia ran over to where Valeria and Nyla were crouched, the fon master guardian currently occupying the Blade Rex's attention for the moment. "I'm not sure how much longer we can keep this up, especially when Ginji might be out of time…"

Valeria nodded. "I could try another Marvelous Fountain, but it seemed to do more healing for us than damage for it… Any chance either you or Anise know a Mystic Arte?"

The Princess shook her head. "I haven't been trying all that hard and Anise told me she only had the base theory behind hers down. What about you?"

The blonde ran her fingers along Nyla's fur for a moment before letting off a Blessed Drops to get the Rex off Anise's back. The Guardian once more let off a dual punishment before dropping back to cast, Nyla rushing forward to take her place after getting up from Natalia's healing.

Valeria sighed. "That pooch is going to get herself killed from jumping headlong into fights all the time…"

But the same could be said about her, couldn't it?

Nodding to herself as she stuck the odd sword in the ground, Valeria pulled three knives from her pouch and decided to make the same dumb decision the Arka did. Closing her eyes for the briefest of moments, Valeria let loose a burst of fonons, opening her eyes and darting forwards towards the Rex, the fonons forcing the Rex to halt in its tracks.

However, the moment she got close to it, she darted straight past it, driving a knife into the ground. That done, she flung herself to the left and quickly dug another knife into the ground, doing it once more on the other side of the Rex until a triangle was formed in the ground surrounding the reptile.

Taking another knife out, the blonde pulled in fourth fonons from the air, bringing them in tight around the Rex. Water began to pool within the triangle, building more and more until it covered the Rex entirely, a blue sheen pulsing from within the confines of the triangle.

Valeria slowly raised a hand, palm up as a fonic circle formed beneath her feet.

The water shook within the triangle, rising slowly above the struggling Rex until nothing covered the reptile, all moisture now above the creature.

"I cry out to the waves, heed my call! Descend and grace us with your frozen embrace!"

The Rex had a single moment to spin towards where Valeria was before she threw the knife at the creature. The water above it burst out of the triangular formation, spinning upward and forming icy particles in the air and jagged ice forms in the water itself before falling atop the Rex, freezing the moment the water hit the ground.

Valeria tilted her head, snapping her fingers. "Arctic Waterfall!"

The ice shattered then, sending a huge blast of cold air shooting out around them, the air becoming completely chilled and small particles of snow spun around them.

The moment the arte broke apart, the Rex fell over. Anise was by it almost immediately, checking to see if it was dead. Valeria, however, collapsed as well, falling to the ground where she stood. Natalia was by her side moments later, checking her over but Valeria pushed the scanning arte aside.

"I'll be fine… I just need water, lots of water…"

Nyla nosed her as well, worried about her.

Anise let out a noise that had everyone quickly looking over at her. She turned sheepish a moment later. "Sorry, I'm just glad it's dead…"

Natalia breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh good, I was afraid it was still alive…"

"Oh man that would suck, especially after that last arte!" Anise turned to Valeria. "Was that your Mystic Arte?!"

Valeria nodded, not saying anything as she accepted water from Natalia.

"It was very pretty; I'm surprised you've never told us you could use it." Natalia commented, looking at Valeria expectantly.

"With good reason… I honestly shouldn't have used that but we were short on time," Valeria breathed, closing her eyes for a moment as a wave of nausea hit her followed closely by dizziness.

"Why shouldn't you have used it?" Anise asked her, tilting her head.

At this point Nyla was nudging her up so she could get on the Arka's back. Once she was situated, Nyla began walking the direction they needed to head, only pausing when Valeria had the canine halt next to where she'd stuck the odd sword.

She wasn't sure why, maybe something her fonic senses were trying to tell her, but she had a feeling this sword was important. So she grabbed the sword and put it in the wing pack Nyla carried for them, intending to look at the weapon later.

"To answer your question Anise, that was the first time I've ever used that Mystic Arte."

"Seriously?!"

"That's dangerous!"

Valeria let out a sigh, feeling another wave of nausea. "I know, Natalia, but Ginji needs us now, not later."

"Why is it still so cold?"

Valeria blinked at the younger girl. "Huh?"

Anise was clutching her hands to her shoulders. "Don't you feel the air? It's really cold! I almost want to take out my coat!"

Apparently the Fon Master Guardian had forgotten that of the group, Valeria had been the only one in Keterburg that hadn't needed any extra clothing in the freezing temperatures. It was a handy thing to have, when in colder areas, she'd just have the fourth fonons bypass her in those instances which doesn't make her cold.

It was actually a subconscious skill, so she's never cold. But she could clearly see all the fonons in the air, and now there was a huge abundance of the fourth fonons, when there hadn't actually been that many before.

"Yeah, it's been this way since your arte finished off the Blade Rex," Natalia observed, her eyes on Valeria.

Valeria took another drink of water. "It's probably cause I used too many fonons in that arte… I feel completely exhausted, and I'm also worried I may throw up…"

Natalia gained a worried look. "That's not normal…"

"And neither is using a Mystic Arte for the first time ever during an intense battle. I honestly should've been testing it out a lot more before trying to pull it off in battle. I'll be fine eventually, once I'm done using the launcher, I'll pass out on Nyla, don't worry."

"Okay…" Natalia didn't look convinced, but she couldn't argue since Valeria was the only one in the group who knew how to work the machine needed.

The rest of the trip was silent until they finally reached the point where they were able to get the Albiore down safely. The rest of the group was already on the other side of the canyon, their launcher already set up.

"What took so long?" Guy called out.

"We'll explain later!" Natalia called back, helping Valeria down off of Nyla. Valeria then got out the launcher, placing it on the ground.

Pushing a couple of buttons, the machine embedded itself into the ground, a grappling hook coming out from within the contraption. A wave of dizziness hit her and Valeria had to pause for a moment before getting the machine sighted and ready to launch.

"Ready over here!" She called out.

"On three," Guy told her. "One…"

"Two…"

"Three!" They both called, Valeria hitting the button to launch the hook.

The hooks on both sides sailed through the air, wrapping around the wings of the Albiore and securing it tightly to the launchers. Once more the two of the counted down and hit a couple more buttons, the launcher then began pulling the Albiore from atop the rocky formation.

For half a second everyone tensed as the Albiore began its fall but the launchers did their jobs and quickly kept it from free falling, catching it tightly as it reached the midway point to the ground. Slowly, the Albiore began to get lowered down to the ground until it safely touched the bottom.

That done, Valeria hit the button on her launcher to disengage it then repacked the machine, getting slowly back on Nyla. Once situated, she looked at her group and pointed down. "We can go get him now."

After carefully making their way down the ledge, they met up with the rest of the group, who were already helping Ginji out of the Albiore.

"Are you hurt?" Luke asks the pilot.

"No, thanks to you all."

Valeria almost wanted to point out that he should probably be a bit more freaked out than he seemed. The guy had obviously been up there for hours, if not a whole day, and that last bit had him almost free falling. But since she was trying to keep herself from falling from Nyla, she chose instead to just lie her head down on the canine.

Jade came over, looking her up and down. "What happened?"

Valeria almost wanted to say nothing, but she knew he was feeling the sudden influx of fourth fonons and was probably deducing, correctly, that is was her fault. So instead she decided to pretend she was asleep, especially since she wished she was.

Of course, she probably should've spoken up instead, since Anise had to open her big mouth.

"We ran into this HUGE monster! We would've been in trouble and much later if Valeria hadn't used her Mystic Arte!"

Valeria could feel Jade's gaze zeroing in on her, the intensity of it sending shivers down her spine. "Her Mystic Arte, huh?"

"Let's talk later," Tear interrupted. "Ginji just grabbed the hover drive; we have no time to lose."

"Yeah," Luke agreed. "Ginji, can you walk?"

"Yes, I'm fine. Let's go."

Valeria knew that Jade definitely wasn't going to drop this, but she was in denial and just wanted sleep, so she let everyone else handle the monsters on the rest of the way back; allowing herself to succumb to the urge and fall asleep.

* * *

**I want to give a big shout out to Twilight PhoenixFyre for helping me create the incantation for Valeria's Mystic Arte! She's actually managed to give me ideas, without even knowing about it, so we can thank her for some of the plot bunnies that are in the works!**


	28. Chapter 28

**A/N:**

**RK: So in the words of Mara "Happy Explosive Paradise Day"!**

**Otherwise known as the Fourth of July!**

**If you're from the US, enjoy the wonderfulness that is fireworks! Sadly, I won't be able to see anything like that tonight because I'll be working through it. But I remember when I used to go watch all the fireworks as a child with my parents. Ahhh, fun times!**

**But I figured it would be a nice treat to submit a new chapter today, so here you go!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

The entire way back to Sheridan, Jade kept an eye on Valeria.

He knew that she had been working on her Mystic Arte, even getting some of the formulations down and had been ready to begin toying with gathering the correct amount of fonons for it. But from what she'd told him, she wasn't ready to attempt it in battle.

In fact, he recalled her telling him on the way to Grand Chokmah that she was planning on working on it more after dealing with St. Binah. But that was only going to be after she finished working on another arte she'd been toying with.

So to hear from Anise that Valeria had used her Mystic arte against a creature that had been giving their group a lot of trouble was a bit worrisome. Especially with how exhausted she looked. She'd missed out on at least four jokes she could've made against both him and Guy, the two of them being her favorite targets other than Luke. And yet she'd just laid there on Nyla, either asleep or pretending to be so, while everyone else was fighting and protecting her, Nyla and Ginji.

He noticed that neither Natalia nor Anise had anything to say about her not helping so they clearly thought she needed rest. In fact the only one to bring it up was Guy, who only asked what was wrong once before Natalia explained the situation.

Jade had almost expected Luke to be the one to bring it up, yet the red head had remained silent, only glancing at Valeria worriedly before going to attack a monster intent on their group.

Now, they were finally entering Sheridan, hours later. Ginji accepted the hover drive from Guy, who had placed it in a wing pack during the journey. "Thank you for everything! I'll go on ahead and deliver the hover drive."

With that, Ginji departed from them, leaving them standing at the entrance of the town.

Now that they were safely in the town, Jade looked over at Valeria, still asleep on Nyla. He almost left her like that, asleep. But instead, he nudged her, making her topple to the ground. Nyla rounded on him immediately, growling sharply, fangs barred.

Jade took a step back at the Arka's anger. "Stand down Nyla…"

Everyone took a step back at once at his tone, clearly unsure as to what's going on. Something he was confused about as well. Why did Nyla suddenly get so defensive of the girl? And why did Valeria suddenly fall like that?

The girl in question groaned from where she was on the ground. "Back…"

Nyla moved immediately at her words, circling around the girl so that she was behind Valeria, though she was still growling at Jade. Jade stared the Arka down, tense as the canine took a step forward until Valeria stood on shaky feet, pushing Nyla back a couple of steps. She seemed to share a look with her pet and Nyla relaxed for the moment, sitting down on her back feet.

Tired silver eyes regarded Jade before she ran a hand through her disheveled hair. "For future reference, since you haven't been around me like this before, fonon depletion from artes makes me loopy and Nyla gets uber protective during times that I get like this. She's actually attacked Dist a couple of times when this has happened before."

"So this isn't the first time you've attempted your Mystic Arte?"

"I never said that," Valeria told Jade. "I only said that there are some instances when I've had artes deplete my reserves for fourth fonons and that makes me loopy as opposed to just being really tired when there aren't any fourth fonons around."

"You seem pretty stable," Guy pointed out.

She shrugged. "It comes and goes. I just need more sleep and more water and I'll be fine."

Jade wanted to ask a couple more questions but Valeria took that moment to climb back on Nyla to fall back asleep. And the moment he opened his mouth to ask, they were interrupted.

"You must be the nuts who sailed over here on a Malkuth landship!"

Kimlascan soldiers ran at them, brandishing their weapons. Granted, both he and Nyla had Malkuth tabards on them and their group was an odd mix of people, but there was still no reason for the soldiers to suddenly get on the defensive like this.

"Hmm? Are the two of you Malkuth soldiers!?"

"Uh-oh."

Luke said what they were all currently thinking, and with Nyla being a little on edge because of Valeria, it would not be a good idea for any confrontations.

"Run!"

Jade made sure the others moved at Anise's order before allowing himself to do the same, Nyla with Valeria being the second to last to leave as the Arka seemed hesitant to go with them. But Jade knew Nyla was smart, and came to the conclusion that they were the lesser evil.

They all ran through Sheridan, ignoring the odd looks from the general population as they rushed by. Jade looked ahead and noticed that Guy was standing by the open door to a warehouse, ready to shut it the moment he was in.

The moment Guy closed the door, Jade found it interesting that Nyla went over to help him hold the door as the soldiers caught up and began banging on it.

"Ah, you're back!" Iemon walked towards them, rubbing his hands excitedly. "Aston's about to attach the hover drive right now!"

"Open this door immediately!"

Tamara came out from behind a terminal. "What's going on?"

Jade adjusted his glasses. "We were spotted by Kimlascan soldiers."

"Oh, that's right; you're a soldier from Malkuth."

If Valeria was awake, Jade was pretty sure she would've face palmed or brought up the fact that two of their group was wearing Malkuth tabards. He was actually surprised she didn't suddenly wake up to do just that, since she's been known to wake up to say one sentence then go right back to sleep.

Was her exhaustion really that bad? Jade has honestly never seen her like this, even when she'd been tired in the desert.

"This city originally produced landships for Malkuth," Iemon mused. "If we weren't on the brink of war, nobody would have cared…"

That seemed to make Tamara recall something. "Speaking of landships, we took a load of parts from yours. There were even some parts that aren't being manufactured anymore. It was a big help."

"Thanks to that," Ion interjected, "the Tartarus is no longer operational."

"But if the Albiore can actually fly, we won't need the Tartarus anymore."

"What do you mean, 'actually'?!" Aston demanded angrily to Anise's comment, rising up from the floor on an elevator. "The Albiore carries our hopes and dreams! It will never fall!"

"…It already did," Jade heard Luke mutter.

"Hey! Guys! Hurry it up! They're breaking down the door, Nyla and I can't hold it much longer!"

Tear stepped forward, serious after Guy's request. "What's the condition of the Albiore II?"

"It's finished," Aston assured, "and the pilot's ready too!"

"Okay, we'll handle those soldiers. Hurry!"

"But the soldiers are quite irate," Natalia argued when Iemon spoke up. "Perhaps I should tell them who I am…"

"There's no time! Leave it to us."

"Never underestimate the elderly!" Aston added, standing next to Tamara as she brandished her ruler. "Now, take off into the great sky of dreams!"

Jade didn't bother to respond to that, nudging Nyla towards the elevator, the Arka taking up most of the space. They'd need two trips to get down to the Albiore, especially since Nyla was being odd because of Valeria.

He, Tear and Nyla were the first ones down and they quickly got into the Albiore as the others came down on the second trip of the elevator. Jade told Nyla to curl up some place out of the way while he went up front to speak with the pilot.

And was a little surprised to see that it was a young woman standing next to the pilot's seat, he'd actually expected it to be Ginji. Granted this was a better choice since the young man was still injured, and he also knew that even though she was young, it didn't mean she didn't know what she was doing.

"I've been waiting for you; I'm the Albiore II's pilot, Noelle. Ginji, the Albiore I's pilot, is my older brother. I'll fly you all to St. Binah in his stead."

Jade nodded. "We appreciate it; all of us are good to go when you're ready."

Noelle nodded and quickly sat down in the passenger seat, getting the Albiore II ready for take-off. The moment she was ready, she told the others to hold on and they were soon in the air.

While they were in the air, Jade took the time to look around at the machinery available in the cockpit. He had a feeling that, if she were awake and aware, Valeria would be all over everything, wanting to know how it worked. Jade also wondered why Guy wasn't doing something similar since he also liked fon tech just like Valeria.

Speak of, once they were fully in the air, Jade moved back to the cargo hold where Nyla was currently wrapped completely around Valeria, the blonde lying on the floor curled into a ball. Nyla looked up as he came closer, growling low in her throat. Stopping a couple of feet away, Jade sat down on the floor, placing his water flask on the ground halfway between them.

"I know you want to protect her, but keeping her from others who can help heal her is not the best course of action." Jade informed Nyla.

The Arka lifted her head higher, staring him in the eyes before slowly unfurling her tails from around the blonde. Nyla then shifted so that she was behind the girl instead of blocking her in, allowing Jade to move a bit closer and set the water right by the blonde's head.

"I'll come back and check on her later, make sure she wakes up and drinks that."

Nyla didn't growl again but kept her gaze on him as he left the room.

* * *

Valeria jolted awake, nausea hitting her the moment she sat up. Curling in on her stomach, she leaned to the side and emptied what remained in her stomach.

A noise behind her had Valeria turning back to look and her eyes fell on Nyla. The canine was behind her, though she appeared to be fighting the urge to get in front of her.

Had the drain been that bad? That Nyla would feel the need to get this protective?

Valeria took that moment to look around and realized she was surrounded by people. A lot more people than she remembered being by when she went to sleep last.

How long was she out that they'd managed to get the people of St. Binah?

One of the women on the Albiore came over to her, an eye on Nyla. "Are you okay?"

Valeria blinked, suddenly not sure why her body reacted in such a way to make her vomit. Then she looked out the window closest to them and realized the air was filled with a purple haze. They were in the Qliphoth, it seemed. Maybe the reaction was to the miasma, they were outside Yulia City, so that meant there isn't much to protect them from the harmful substance.

Valeria nodded to the woman, placing her hand on the Arka to keep her calm. "I'm good, just surprised we're in the Qliphoth, that's all."

"Oh, is that what this place is?"

Valeria eyed the woman carefully. "You're calm about having your town getting destroyed."

"I had accepted the fact that we likely wouldn't be returning, and… I lost my husband in Akzeriuth; maybe this means I need a change."

Valeria tilted her head for a moment before she nodded and thanked the woman for checking on her. She then got up and walked towards the cockpit, where her group was talking about their next move.

"Man I must've been out of it if we managed to get the people of St. Binah and I didn't wake up." Valeria muttered.

They turned to her.

Jade adjusted his glasses. "Valeria, how are you feeling?"

"Still a little tired and nauseas but fine," she told him. "What's the plan?"

Everyone turned to look at Guy and he hung his head. "We're taking the people from St. Binah to Yulia city. We're also going to see if we can get any information on the from Tear's grandfather about the Sephiroth so we can try and save St. Binah."

The moment he said Sephiroth the blonde felt a jolt in her head. It felt like a wedge was being jabbed into her. Valeria put a hand to her head and leaned against the wall. "Sounds like a good idea. He should know a lot about it, being a watcher or whatever."

Jade came over to her then, dragging her away from the others.

Oh right, he was going to be upset with her. She'd actually forgotten about that until now.

"When did you finish your Mystic Arte, Valeria?"

Valeria thought about it, checking the day in her head. "If the Albiore II is as fast as I think it is, about a week ago?"

"And you idiotically decided to try it for the first time in the middle of a battle?" He asked, just to be sure.

Valeria gulped. "We were running far behind and we needed to make sure Ginji was okay, I was pretty sure I could handle it and it did end with the thing getting killed."

"Then why did you expel so many fonons? We felt that cold blast of air all the way where we were at Valeria. Are you sure you're okay?"

"I think I know what happened. I'll work on it more and test a couple of elements of it before trying it again. I'll be fine, Jade."

He stared at her for a long moment before turning back to head towards the cockpit again. "We're going to be resupplying in Yulia City, so make sure you have everything you need."

"Jade?" He stopped. "Please don't tell Aslan…"

"Tell him what?"

Valeria silently thanked him, heading back to Nyla.

* * *

They were on their way to Shurry Hill.

Apparently while she'd been off talking with a couple of people and restocking, the group had gotten some information from Teodoro and decided this was a good place to head too.

Valeria still wasn't sure how exactly the others planned on getting the passage rings to work. From what she could figure out, especially since she had a bit of information from what Lillium gave her, the passage rings were Dawn Age technology that no one in this age has any real idea on how to operate, though the Information Brokers had written their own theories from past information that had been unearthed.

And the fact that the Underworld knew more about the Sephiroth than some of the other leaders of the Outer Lands made Valeria feel a bit odd, since Daath should've known more.

At least Ion knew the coordinates and how to access the Sephiroth, something the papers had informed Valeria on what to do.

At the moment, the group was making their way out of the Albiore and towards the entrance of Shurry Hill, Ion in the lead walking next to Luke and Anise.

After walking for some time, Ion finally said they were there. Yet when they all looked around, they could see nothing. Ion made a gesture and suddenly the air shimmered and a Sephiroth door appeared before them.

Valeria smirked. "Neat trick, how'd you do it?"

"It's a protective measure for the Sephiroth. Normally we'd need the fifth fonon to activate it but it was used recently and the protective spell wouldn't have charged up enough to be fully functional without outside help." Ion explained.

"And I take it the God Generals hadn't cared about the protective measure?"

"That is correct."

Valeria hummed and moved forward, drawing her knives just in case something was inside the Sephiroth now. Luke walked with her, his hand on his sword and she nodded to him. Though the moment they walked inside the blonde almost dropped her knives in surprise and awe.

After taking a quick glance to see if there was anything about to attack them, Valeria turned around to see all around the place.

"This is amazing..." She breathed as a sudden pain hit her head.

The pain had her clutching her head, biting her lip.

_—ne!—_

_—mber!—_

_—ect seals...—_

_—ouch sto—_

The pain stopped suddenly and Valeria looked up to see Jade in front of her, his hand on her shoulder, shaking her. She blinked at him and shook her head. "Sorry... I must still be out of it from before..."

Jade didn't appear to believe her, but he let it drop for the moment and began to walk further into the Sephiroth.

They did have to fight a couple of times, but there weren't as many monsters in here that they'd thought there would be. And before long they were in front of the passage ring, each of them looking around in various stages of awe.

Guy walked closer to the fon stone and scratched his head. "This isn't your average fon machine. I don't have a clue what to do with it..." He looked over. "Valeria? Got any ideas?"

Valeria, who had been looking around the room instead of focusing, snapped her head towards Guy. "Oh... Uh..."

She walked over to the machine as Luke tilted his head. "What exactly are we supposed to do with Seventh Fonons?"

Ion stepped forward, looking up, face resting on his hand. "This is strange; the Yulian seal hasn't been removed."

"What does that mean?" Jade asked. "Did General Grants not use it...?"

"Ugh, don't tell me we came all this way for nothing?" Anise moaned.

Valeria stepped closer to the fon stone instinctively, reaching out to touch the floating stone carefully without falling off the platform. The moment her fingers grazed the stone Valeria felt the fonons within her pulse and swirl out of her body and into the air. Her energy plummeted and her knees started to give way. Nyla took that moment to grab her by her shirt and pull her back.

"Valeria?!"

"What happened?"

Valeria wondered if they actually noticed that her legs had started to give way... "Nyla didn't like the fact that I was leaning so close to the fon stone, I think she thought I was going to fall off."

That seemed to appease Natalia, though once again Jade kept a close eye on her. "Well? Thoughts on the fon machine?"

"Um..." The pain from before came back suddenly but quickly left before she could move to clutch her head.

Tear got a concerned look on her face, soValeria knew she'd seen the small flash of pain from her. The melodist came closer to her, likely wanting to try something, when she brushed against the odd book and it suddenly opened up.

"Stop," Valeria ordered Tear, pointing at the book.

Everyone looked at what she was pointing at and then up.

"It reacted to Tear," Jade observed.

"It looks like the Yulian seal is still active though," Ion told them, staring at the terminal lights above them.

Valeria looked at the screen then down at the book that was open now that Tear was touching it. Another pulse of pain hit her but this time she felt disconnected from it, staring at the book as if she'd seen it before.

"Tear... Use one of your melodies... The one for healing." She ordered suddenly.

She felt the gazes of the others on her, but Valeria was certain it would work. It didn't make entirely too much sense for her but she just had a feeling that it would work just fine. But only if it was the one for healing, anything else and the terminal would just close and make it unusable for a unknown period of time.

Tear seemed to hesitate. "I don't know the symbolism for it..."

Valeria shook her head. "It doesn't matter if you know how to use the hymn, only if you know it and can sing it."

That seemed to make the melodist feel better since she sang out the hymn after a couple seconds of though and everyone watched as the Yulian seal unlocked right in front of them.

"It says 'Warning', is that part of the Yulian seal?" Jade asked.

Ion shook his head. "I don't know."

Valeria leaned forward to look at the book. "Jade, look at this. This seems to be how you can control the passage ring."

Jade moved forward next to her and Tear, looking at the book and beginning to read. Valeria was reading too and she could tell when Jade stiffened that he'd realized exactly what she had as well.

"...You've really outdone yourself this time, General Grants."

"My brother did something to it?!"

"He closed the valve, making it impossible to revive the Sephiroth Tree."

"What does that mean?" Natalia asked hesitantly.

"It means, that we may very well be in trouble." Everyone looked at Valeria. "The passage ring is unusable because of a code locked around it."

Mieu tilted his head, climbing on Nyla's head for a better view. "Can we break the code?"

"If I could use the Seventh Fonon I'd break it myself. But..." Jade trailed off, no need to go any further.

"...What if I use hyperresonance to erase the code or whatever? That uses the Seventh Fonon, right?"

Jade looked over at Valeria, sharing a look with her as she was thinking it over. Glancing at the book for more than a minute, she weighed the options before nodding. It amused her that he seemed to think she knew a lot about these machines. She was beginning to understand them, but still...

"...If you could erase just the code, that might work."

"Luke!" Tear interrupted. "You can't control it yet...!"

"I've been practicing! Besides, if I mess up here, we're no better off than if we'd done nothing."

Valeria bit her lip as she eyed Luke. She'd gone ahead and read through further portions of the reads on the book-like device. The other apparently didn't realize that this Sephiroth covered the Engeve area as well as St. Binah, but she figured she'd at least give them this moment. Luke was right, if he couldn't break the code, then Engeve would fall no matter what as well.

"See how the diagram representing the third Sephiroth is lit up red? Erase just that part." Jade instructed.

"I'll give it a try."

While Luke began using his hyperresonance, Valeria continued to look through the terminal book, checking to see if there was anything she might be able to do with it. There appeared to be a lot of intricate workings for the machine but nothing stating that only those with Seventh Fonon could work the terminal. It only says that someone with the fonon had to activate the machine...

She filed that bit of knowledge away for another time, looking up right as Luke finished erasing the code, releasing the memory particles into the air.

Once more Valeria felt an odd sensation, and then looked around to see more fourth fonons pulsing in the air around here.

Had those come from her?

She only had a moment to think that before her knees gave out again, Nyla once more catching her. This time, Valeria climbed atop the Arka, making sure she wouldn't fall over.

What was going on? She'd never had this amount of fonons drain from her at one time, it absolutely made no sense. But as she was looking around at the fonons, she could see them getting absorbed into the fon stone in the center of the machine, the stone glowing for a moment before going back to normal.

As this was going on, the rest of the group was going on about how happy they were that the hyperresonance did the trick and St. Binah wasn't going to fall. Though when Luke started thanking everyone even Valeria had to admit that wasn't usual from him and stared open mouthed.

"Oh no! Wait!" Anise cried out. "It's too soon to be celebrating! Look at that!"

It appeared that the Fon Master Guardian had realized what Valeria had already figured out.

"Yep, the entire Rugnica Plains is supposed to be supported by this Sephiroth."

"You don't seem too surprised about that news," Jade noted.

"I looked ahead and paid attention. I didn't think mentioning it when I figured it out would've been relevant since Luke was still deciding about whether or not to use his hyperresonance to try and fix it."

"This is seriously bad for Engeve!" Anise told them, her eyes narrowing on Valeria. "Why not mention it sooner?!

"It doesn't matter," Natalia stated. "We have to get back to the Outer Lands and evacuate the people from Engeve!"

Valeria hung her head. "And to think, we'd just moved the people of St. Binah there, it's going to be interesting explaining to them how they have to move once more..."

Tear took this to mean that we were done with the terminal and let her hands fall off of the book. Valeria, who had been looking over at the time, noticed when Tear winced slightly. She then put her hands against her chest and looked deep in thought.

"…Tear, you okay?"

"Just a bit tired, I guess. I'm fine, though." She assured.

"Then we should probably go check on the situation in the Outer Lands." Jade told them, turning to head out of the Sephiroth.

* * *

**Nyla being protective is going to have a big impact on some major plot later on in the story. I want to say it's going to get better, but in truth it will likely get worse when the plot goes down... Oh well! Happy 4th everyone!**


End file.
